J. Tyler Holmes

Loyola University Chicago’s School of Communication held its Fifth Annual International Digital Ethics and Policy Symposium on November 6. The event began with technical designer and novelist Maggie Orth, emphasizing the “Ethics of Wearable Fashion” and how complex problems in today’s modern world cannot be solved without innovation.

After receiving her PhD from the MIT Media Lab in 2002, Orth founded International Fashion Machines, Inc., where her development and design of wearable technology began.

Orth invited the audience to consider intimacy in technology with two things in mind. Technological devices are so interwoven into daily life that people do not realize when the physical attachment becomes emotional. Orth also emphasizes that smartphones are considered wearable technology, as they are constantly on display.

“It [smartphones] knows what we eat without seeing our food and when we shit,” Orth said. “I feel uncomfortable without it.”

Before her career began, Orth expressed her creativity through painting, which transitioned into the field of fashion design with technological aspects. Orth’s interest in this untouched market is what led her to the development of E-textiles after graduation. The United States Artists Foundation describes Orth as “a pioneer of electronic textiles, interactive fashions, wearable computing, and interface design”.

Sustainability and gender equality have always been prominent topics incorporated into Orth’s designs. In the creation of her Firefly Dress, a dress with a continuous circuit that lights up as the wearer moves,  she wanted to “take something masculine and make it feminine and functional.”

Orth has been careful throughout the mass production of her technological designs, making sure the technology can be disposable without having a negative impact on the environment. Being conscious about what people need compared to adding unnecessary technology to a basic article of clothing is what she believes will add longevity to a piece.

“Technology companies are releasing products out of fear,” Orth said. “Let’s imagine these materials can instead be as disposable as a t-shirt.”