Subversive: BioFashion for Black Lives

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a speculative and critical wearable design that will integrate wearable sensors that can collect biometric data from the wearer. The individual data collected can be crowdsourced across urban landscapes and used by entities designed to provide therapeutic and protective response mechanisms. This bio-designed garment is meant to be a subversion of the hoodie, typically worn throughout the Black community. Through our speculative upcycling of the typical hoodie, we envision an Afrofuturist wearable design to change the narrative of the social impact of wearing a hoodie while being Black. Our objective is to conceptualize the fabrication of wearable artifacts that convey properties of physical and physiological protection that can be used to make clothing relevant to marginalized, at-risk populations.