What would my bra say if it could talk?

Director Alexa Karolinski dreams up a humorous vision of the role wearable technology might play in our future daily lives.
Whether smart watch or fitness tracking device – when we think about wearable technology today, we tend to get lost in each gadget’s specific functionalities and stick to the realms of wellness and aspiration. But what’s next? What could wearable design mean for our daily lives, communications and social interactions? It’s a question our short film “Alter Ego” explores. The film follows Annabelle, a young but slightly lost millennial, through her day in New York City. It all starts when a mysterious package arrives on her doorstep, containing a “magic” bra: once she puts on the garment, a mysterious voice appears – a voice that seems to know more about Annabelle, her body and sometimes even her feelings than the girl herself. In the end, our protagonist encounters a fabulous older lady who seems strangely familiar ...
A talking bra? Not so far-fetched, according to Prof. Sabine Seymour.
The inspiration for the video’s futuristic story is based in hard science: Prof. Sabine Seymour is a researcher and serial entrepreneur who teaches at Parsons School of Design in New York and works on the intersection of fashion and technology. With her start-up SUPA, she turns wearables into “disappearables” – SUPA is an artificial intelligence that gathers its insights from SUPA sensors embedded in fabrics – fabrics you can wash and wear every day, just like any other piece of clothing. At the same time, these clothes can tell you more about the state of your body and even how the environment influences your performance.

Seymour’s first product, the bra depicted in our video, measures biometrics like heart rate. And while we might consider a bra that “knows”, “understands” and dispenses advice to its owner the stuff of science fiction, it’s not an unrealistic scenario, according to the professor who already works on shaping our “alter egos.”