CuteCircuit ( ) is a fashion company based in London founded in 2004 by Ryan Genz and Francesca Rosella. CuteCircuit designs

wearable technology Wearable technology is any technology that is designed to be used while worn. Common types of wearable technology include smartwatches and smartglasses. Wearable electronic devices are often close to or on the surface of the skin, where they detec ...

and interactive fashion. All CuteCircuit garments are designed by Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz. CuteCircuit was the first fashion company offering smart textile-based garments that create an emotional experience for their wearers using smart textiles and micro electronics. With the launch of the first collection in 2004, design critic

John Thackara John Thackara (born 6 August 1951, Newcastle upon Tyne) is a British-born writer, advisor and public speaker. He is known as curator of the celebrated Doors of Perception conference for 20 years, which started in Amsterdam. He is a senior fellow ...

referred to Francesca Rosella as "The Madonna of wearable computing". The transformational creations from CuteCircuit have been cited as being an inspiration and precursor to the work of other avant-garde designers such as the Hussein Chalayan. The garments have been worn by celebrities including

Irina Shayk Irina Valeryevna Shaykhlislamova (russian: Ирина Валерьевна Шайхлисламова; born 6 January 1986), known professionally as Irina Shayk (; russian: Ирина Шейк), is a Russian model and television personality who ...

, Fergie,

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Known for her influence on modern pop music and her Camp (style), campy style, she has been ...

Collections

Projects

Kinetic Dress
The Kinetic Dress designed by CuteCircuit in 2004. It represents an interaction between garment and wearer's activities and mood; it lights up and changes its patterns following the person's movement . Hug Shirt
The Hug Shirt, a T-shirt that recreates the sensation of touch, warmth and emotion of a hug from the distant one using Bluetooth and sensors technology. The Hug Shirt was awarded as one of the Best Inventions of The Year by ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine in 2006 and also awarded with the First Prize at Ciberart Conference in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

, Spain. M Dress
In 2008 CuteCircuit designed the M Dress that accepts a standard SIM card and allows to make and receive calls anytime, everywhere, without having to carry a cellular phone. Galaxy Dress
It is the world's largest wearable LED display (24,000 full colour LEDs). The Galaxy Dress is the center piece of the "Fast Forward: Inventing the Future" exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. TshirtOS
Designed by CuteCircuit in partnership with Ballantine's, tshirtOS is the world's first wearable, sharable, programmable T-shirt, that can be programmed by an iOS app to show images and texts, play music, take photos and share them with everybody. CuteCircuit designs dresses and costumes for international artist special performances or tours. Such as,

's catsuit for her performance in American Idol, U2 leather jackets for their

U2 360 Tour U or u, is the twenty-first and sixth-to-last letter and fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''u'' (pr ...

, Laura Pausini four and a half meters skirt for her

Inedito World Tour The Inedito World Tour was the sixth world tour by Italian singer Laura Pausini, supporting her eleventh studio album ''Inedito'' / ''Inédito''. It was planned to visit America, Europe and Australia, but ended on 15 September 2012, after Pau ...

or Azerbaijani representative for

Eurovision Song Contest 2010 The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the 55th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Oslo, Norway, following the country's victory at the with the song "Fairytale (Alexander Rybak song), Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak. Organise ...

Safura Alizadeh Safura Alizadeh Aliyev (born 20 September 1992) is an Azerbaijani pop singer. In 2009, she became the winner of the national contest "Pop Idol" (season 8). In 2010, Safura took part in the Eurovision Song Contest, where she brought Azerbaijan o ...

dress.

Prêt-à-Porter and Haute Couture

CuteCircuit product line is formed by the

Prêt-à-Porter Ready-to-wear (or ''prêt-à-porter''; abbreviated RTW; "off-the-rack" or "off-the-peg" in casual use) is the term for ready-made garments, sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made-to-measure or bespoke clothin ...

Collection, the

Haute Couture ''Haute couture'' (; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design that is constructed by hand from start-to-finish. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became th ...

Collection and special tailored pieces for private customers and celebrities. The Prêt-à-Porter Collection includes fashionable pieces made of laser cut reflective materials, 3-D digital print and smart textiles. They have successfully redesigned their iconic haute couture pieces for the prêt-à-porter market; for example, the K Dress inspired by

's dress for

Met Gala The Met Gala, or Met Ball, formally called the Costume Institute Gala or the Costume Institute Benefit, is an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City. It is popularly r ...

2010 was the first interactive fashion garment to be featured in

Selfridges Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of high-end department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited, part of the Selfridges Group of department stores. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge ...

womenswear department. More recently CuteCircuit has launched the World's First Couture Twitter Dress, an evening dress worn for the first time by

Nicole Scherzinger Nicole Scherzinger (; born Nicole Prascovia Elikolani Valiente, June 29, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and television personality. She is best known as the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, one of the best-selling g ...

which is able to receive and show tweets sent in real time by fans.

Awards and exhibitions

CuteCircuit is featured in numerous books and publications such as "100 Ideas that Changed Fashion", "World Changing" edited by Alex Steffen with a foreword by Al Gore, "Fashioning the Future" by Suzanne Lee, "Fashionable Technology: The Intersection of Design, Fashion, Science, and Technology" by Sabine Seymour, "Smart Materials in Architecture, Interior Architecture and Design by Axel Ritter", "Interior Architecture and Design", "Sex Design" and "Designing for Interaction". Many of CuteCircuit products have also been published in magazines and newspapers, such as ''Huffington Post'', ''Time'', ''Elle'', ''Design Matters'', ''Stuff'', ''Wired'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', ''The Times'', ''The Financial Times'', ''Fashionology'' and CuteCircuit was featured in ''Surface'' for the Avantguardian special issue covering the "American Avant Garde" CuteCircuit products and interviews have been featured on BBC "The next generation of wearable tech", BBC Global India, BBC Arabia, Channel 4 "Home of the Future", Discovery Channel International, Channel 5 "The Gadget Show", National Geographic Television, BBC World Technology, BBC Live at Five, BBC Go-Digital, National Japanese Television, and Current TV. Its work has been exhibited at the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam, SIGGRAPH, Design and Emotion Conference, International Symposium of Wearable Computing, 'How Smart are We?' Symposium at RIBA, 'Tomorrow's Textiles' at the Science Museum in London, Test_Lab: Fashionable Technology at the Institute for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam, Gravity Free 2008 and Fast Forward...Inventing the Future in Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, INKtalks 2012 conference in India, MindTrek 2009 conference in Finland, Connected Body at Picnic Festival in Amsterdam, Techno Threads at the Science Gallery in Dublin, IDMAa Conference, The Mobile World Congress, Ethical Fashion Show, Smart Fabrics/Interactive Textiles SFIT in Washington, Nordic Exceptional Trendshop in Denmark and at WIRED NextFest for two consecutive years in New York City and Los Angeles.

References

{{reflist High fashion brands Luxury brands Retail companies established in 2004 Clothing brands of the United Kingdom Clothing retailers of England Clothing companies based in London Wearable devices 2004 establishments in the United Kingdom Companies established in 2004