Robotic fashion: Wear your heartbeat on your sleeve

Milan : Dutch designer Anouk Wipprecht has a vision for a world in which people stop telling themselves little lies about their emotions -- and she believes high-tech fashion is the key.

Her creations, which combine digital technology with haute couture, play with social norms and aim to engineer a cold-turkey solution to our dearest deceptions, she told AFP on the sidelines of Milan Fashion Week. 

The 32-year-old has already seen her stuff worn by former Black Eyed Peas star Fergie during a performance at American football extravaganza the Super Bowl. She has also created 3-D printed outfits for Canadian super troupe Cirque du Soleil.

Yet one of her most deviously disruptive designs is a piece she is developing with crystal-maker Swarovski that uses built-in sensors to blink in time with the wearer's heart beat.

It sounds simple, and maybe even poetic to put one's vital force on display, but it also is incredibly revealing. 

Imagine wearing the thing while talking to a special someone you'd like to be more than just friends with or how about a job interview? They'll be able to see that your heart is pounding with fear or excitement.

"It's sort of almost like you are having goosebumps, you cannot control it or you start to be red in your face. So in a really pure sense, you are able to broadcast your emotions," she said.

"If you are wearing your heartbeat on your sleeve it is a really pure thing. It also gets you in a lot of really awkward situations that for me are super interesting."

This fascination with where human behaviour and digital couture meet has already led Wipprecht to conjure similarly striking experiments.

One of the most famous is called, appropriately enough, the "Spider Dress". The 3-D printed garment is topped with a collar that is studded with robotic spider legs.