Technology To Wear.(International Edition; FASHION)

Byline: Kiki Von Glinow

'Haute tech' designers incorporate everything from GPS systems to computer keyboards into clothing.

We've sprouted fifth appendages that are our iPods and BlackBerrys. We make choices by simply touching a screen. Our lives have become digitalized, mechanized and compartmentalized, and fashion has begun to take on the silhouette of our gadgets.

In recent years, backpacks have begun sporting outside pockets that are, not coincidentally, the perfect size for an iPod. Handbags routinely feature cell-phone compartments. And now, from practical to avant-garde, the fashion industry is taking a cue from these gadgets, integrating their technologies into the fabrics rather than merely providing storage for them.

Known as "haute tech," these designs sometimes resemble costumes borrowed from the set of a sci-fi thriller. Like an old mood ring, one dress can sense the mood of its wearer by gauging his or her gestures and then respond with an appropriate song from its MP3-integrated hood. The innovations know no bounds, and can be quite comical; Erik De Nijs, a student at the Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands, created a pair of tech jeans that incorporates a wireless Bluetooth keyboard into the lap of the pants. Speakers are integrated into the knees of the jeans and a mouse is conveniently stored in the back pocket. While some might find this kind of lap typing mildly vulgar, it highlights the way haute tech is pushing practical, wearable technology. Other garments use a nickel-and-titanium shape-memory alloy to move shimmery panels of fabric as if they are breathing, like coral shifting with the tide. "Clothing becomes the interface to tell a story," says British haute tech designer Di Mainstone, an artist in residence at New York's Eyebeam studio.

One of Mainstone's newest projects, Sharewear, stems from the idea that in today's fast-paced society, time for "intimate homey encounters" is limited. So Mainstone created an ensemble made up ...