Photo courtesy of Dana Hundley/Wikipedia. A hairdryer was used to change the blue to turquoise.
The 90s left much to be sartorially desired, agreed? Flannels, Umbros, and skorts somehow made it into my wardrobe. One item that didn鈥檛: hypercolor shirts, those mysterious jerseys that appeared as one color in 鈥渃ool鈥 environments, another in 鈥渨arm鈥 ones (often created by handprints). Looks like the gimmick鈥檚 back, but this time with a purpose beyond style.
Two New York University grad students have created prototype sweatshirts that change colors upon exposure to pollution鈥斺渁nything from car exhaust to second-hand smoke,鈥 Abbie Fentress Swanson for . One shirt dons a set of lungs, the other a heart. 鈥淰eins鈥 running through the organs turn blue when a censor in the fabric detects high carbon monoxide levels, notes Swanson.
The students鈥擭ien Lam and Sue Ngo鈥攄esigned the shirts for a project they call 鈥,鈥 part of their master鈥檚 coursework for NYU Tisch School of the Arts. "Air pollution is kind of one of these things that's all around us," Lam says in Swanson鈥檚 . "You don't see it, but it exists, and it's invisible鈥攁nd we wanted to bring that to light." Click on the image below to see Lam's shirt in action.