This year's launch event of London Technology Week, Europe's largest festival of technology, is set to bring together some of the UK's leading fashion technology designers this week.

London based fashion designer Brooke Roberts has been commissioned by London & Partners, the Mayor of London's promotional company, to curate the exhibition which is being displayed at the launch of the London Technology Week 2016.

The installation includes a 3D printed wearable garment designed by Modeclix, the holographic intelligent mannequin from Headworks and a behind the scenes look at London Fashion Week using 360 degree video and content curated by creative communications agency Village.

On display

Among the fashion technologies exhibited at the event is Bruise Suit, developed by London's Royal College of Art, is an injury detection suit for disabled athletes with loss of sensation, enabling them to see injuries right when they happen. The product was designed by Dan Garrett, Ming Kong, Lucy Jung, Elena Dieckmann in collaboration with fashion designer Mary Benson. It applies a recyclable pressure-sensitive film to indicate the severity of injuries.    

Another innovation is a digitally knitted fashion from medical scans made by ex-NHS Radiographer and knitwear designer, Brooke Roberts.

Also on display is clothing, developed by a London based company which has produced men’s sensor enabled sports jackets that allow you to play your music through sensors on your clothes. The clothing uses a new class of patented smart pressure sensitive materials to enable new switches and sensors to be printed onto textiles.

Finally, an InMoov Robot is bringing together London's premier agency for 3D digital experiences in the luxury fashion sector, Holition, and the most exciting open source robot technology to create a central fashion/tech interactive robot. The robot is draped with a piece of clothing created by Brooke Roberts and projected onto with animated fashion imagery. The projected fashion imagery will be illustrated by Brooke Roberts and animated by Holition.

UK’s fashion technology sector

London hosted its first London Technology Week in 2014 and last year's festival saw 220 events, attracting over 43,000 attendees. This year's launch event will convene leading figures from the technology and wider business community, focussing on London as hub for the convergence of technology with traditional industries, organisers report.

In the past five years, the number of digital technology businesses in London has increased by over 12,000, with around 40,000 businesses in the capital at present (an increase of 46%). It is forecast the sector will continue to outperform the rest of the UK economy and the number of tech businesses throughout London will increase by 12,500 by 2025, according to a research conducted by Oxford Economics.

“London offers a collaborative and dynamic science, tech and fashion scene. From fashion start-ups, 3D printing and social media, to improving in-store customer experience, brands in London have been leading the way in how to incorporate the latest tech advances into their fashion message,” said Brooke Roberts, fashion designer and curator of the fashion tech installation.

Creative hub of technology revolution

“The communications industry is at an exciting and unprecedented change and London is at the creative hub of a technology revolution,” said Louise Page, Co-Founder, Village. A creative communications agency, Village launched a series of immersive on-demand 360 degree video content of their work to give shoppers an immersive look behind the scenes and help them prioritise experiential purchases that their customers can share on social media. 

Kevin Pearce, London Technology Week Event Director, UBM EMEA London also noted: “London and the UK is world renowned as a leader in the creative industries. From traditional media, advertising and digital agencies, to visual effects, film and TV production and design, fashion and the arts.”

“The thriving creative tech sector is represented throughout this year's London Technology Week programme, by over 150 events. Making it one of key cornerstones to the week and one of the most popular themes for both national and international attendees."

www.londontechnologyweek.co.uk