Sorry, Paparazzi: These Clothes Make You Invisible to the Camera’s Flash
The Illuminati Suit (Via Betabrand)
In our smartphone-saturated world, the threat of an unflattering photo popping up online is everywhere. But not if you’re wearing a suit coated with glass nanospheres.
This is the concept behind Betabrand’s latest line of crowdfunded clothing, a set of pieces that appear Clorox-bright in photographs and that, in the paparazzi’s worst nightmare, also obscure the wearer’s face. As Wired reports, the clothes use the same kind of light-bouncing material you might find on a set of running sneakers.
With these items, Betabrand and designer Chris Holmes aren’t necessarily aiming for visibility –– in fact, quite the opposite.
“The most popular camera in the world is the iPhone,” Holmes, who is best known as a DJ and a producer, said in a video on the “Flashback” project. “Everybody documents everything all the time. As a result, you’re photographed so often without your consent. And it’s a really good way to limit that but also have fun with it.”
The line is made up of a men’s jacket, a scarf, a hat, and something called the “Flashback Illuminati Suit” (which you might imagine Kanye West wearing as a way to get back at the paparazzi). The items range from around $50 to $400. (The scarf above costs about $67; Flashback Illuminati Suit Pants will run you about $230.) Though not entirely practical, they speak to a larger trend of artists and designers seeking a way to push back against our increasingly invasive technological landscape.
The Photobomber Hoodie (Via Betabrand)
As my colleague Rob Walker noted last summer, the anti-tech clothing movement is a burgeoning genre of fashion. No matter what form it takes, as he says, they all have one uniting quality: “They respond to the annoyances, incursions, and even threats of technology with clever technology jujitsu.”
READ: Why Anti-Tech Fashion Is in Style –– Literally
CV Dazzle by Adam Harvey
Artist and designer Adam Harvey’s forays into blocking advanced facial-recognition technology brought us both a crop-top hoodie that blocked drone surveillance and a unique style of makeup meant to throw off advanced software. Focus Life Gear, on the other hand, cuts off your entire cell phone’s connection whenever you wear it.
Focus Life Gear by Kunihiko Morinaga
Though Holmes’s line is fun to play with, he says he hopes it’ll send a subtle message to the world’s overkill photographers.
“Anything that can make people think twice about documenting everything with your camera, and putting down [your] camera, and existing in the moment is a good thing,” he said.
You can check out the “Photobomber Hoodie” here for about $200 and peruse the rest of the collection on Betabrand’s website.
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