Interview with Mark Brill

I agree that there is much to do to create scale, but I don't find it daunting. We are introducing the principle of connecting your wardrobe in order to think differently about clothing. However, we are doing it in a low-cost and open source way-we want to get the tools out there, but where people will take it, is entirely up to them.

We have had very strong response to the concept; so I feel that propagation is not a major challenge. I don't feel that we need everyone on board to make a change. For example, I am most interested in seeing greater use of ethical clothing, and so I'm less bothered if the fast fashion businesses don't want to get involved. We don't need the support through the whole supply chain either. Principally we need RFID tags in clothes-that is happening in the garment industry already and users can simply add their own laundry RFID tags as themselves.

I agree that it's unlikely the fast fashion sector will just change what they do simply because we have a connected wardrobe. However, what I hope the Internet of Clothes will do is make people think about their relationship with clothing. I believe that it has the potential to disrupt in the same way that Napster did with music, AirBnB is doing with accommodation and of course, the many cab apps. Through that I believe that fast fashion will simply become redundant.

To be clear, this is about connecting garments, not people! Individuals are an anonymous data point in this process and not identified in any way-the personality is in the clothes. Within the system there is complete user control about what, where and when they receive messages. For example, they could have an anonymous Twitter account and just see alerts on their phone via messages. We want our users to be aware of their own privacy needs and manage them accordingly.

The concept has been in development for over a year. During that time, we have gathered a lot of feedback which is almost all positive. If there are any negatives, it's that some people prefer not to be 'nagged' by their clothes. However, as there is a high degree of control in terms of messages, etc, I feel the system addresses that point. What is interesting is that people suggest many different ideas as to how the wardrobe could be used-from style matching to clothing stories. Our aim is to open source the concept and see the kind of contributions that others come up with.

We are continuing to build a strong team that includes designers, artists, programmers and manufacturers. For building the 'exhibit' wardrobe, we are working with a company in the Midlands, HF Contracts. This might lead to a production wardrobe that has the core RFID technology built in. On the programming side, we are working closely with BCU's IoT team in the computing school-we would like to develop a more sophisticated algorithm. The more contextual it is, and the less friction for the user the better the chance of success.

Personally I find the Three Rs a little bit outdated. Take clothing, for example, there are reasons why we consume more clothes than we need. In part that's down to 'fast fashion' making clothes cheaper, but it is also fuelled by recent social conventions that promote high consumption. How many clothes should you own? This is why the connected wardrobe aims to go beyond the Three Rs and question our whole relationship with fashion. I agree that the industry has been very slow. For example, I am aware of dyes that would vastly reduce the amount of water required to produce denim, but there's little pressure on the industry to change. Perhaps if the wardrobe gains widespread adoption, then it will add pressure to create a sustainably and fair clothing industry.