At a recent lecture organised jointly by the Society of Cosmetic Scientists (SCS) and the British Society of Perfumers (BSP) Jenny Tillotson explained her innovative work with responsive fragrance
Responsive clothing that goes one step beyond current microencapsulated techniques. That's the goal of Jenny Tillotson, sensory designer and senior research fellow in Fashion & Textile Design at Central Saint Martins. "It's basically the next step on from scratch and sniff in microencapsulation," she said as she introduced her lecture on Scentsory Design - Fashion Fluidics to a mixed audience of cosmetic scientists from the SCS and perfumers from the BSP. Tillotson's mission is "to create 'emotional fashion' by adding more sensations into the fashion palette in ways that create radical new fashion properties with real benefit". This is achieved by pulsing scent through fibres and building them into a membrane textile.
Tillotson said she has always been fascinated by the kind of multisensory explosion explored in books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the science fashion epitomised by films like Fantastic Voyage. With a PhD in textiles, she naturally became interested in creating a clothing line but wanted it to be something helpful and with an olfactory element, which led to her working on the development of a smart second skin; basically, palette + pump = smart second skin. This smart second skin comprises a membrane of micro-tubes fused together with microelectronics, microfluidics and yarns embedded in clothing elements through knitting, weaving or embroidery. The idea is that this creates a well-being scent delivery system and is something that adds function to fashion and textile design. So the delivery of different scents, and also colours, can be linked to respiratory rhythms or strings of emotion, for example. The idea is emotional fashion with a social and therapeutic value in a desirable context. Work is being done with sensors and actuators (eg heart rate, temperature, blood pressure) and these can be built into the clothing. It is a very multidisciplinary area.
Tillotson worked with Paris designer Adeline Andre on the development of the actual second skin, a delicate silk dress with scent pulsing through it via embedded microelectronics and microfluidics. The amount of scent emitted is actually very small as this is nano-work and the very small molecules are pumped as a nano-sized mist. "It responds to personal or environmental needs," said Tillotson, so the scent is delivered in a precise, controlled way to the face, wrist or wherever. The idea is the creation of a personal scent bubble with the scent detectable by the wearer alone. "The molecule is the message," said Tillotson. "It influences behaviour, learning and mood. The question is whether it can actually prevent mood swings. The ultimate goal is to shield the user from stress... hopefully."
The technology need not be restricted to clothing. Other suggestions include a bag, with the technology contained in something resembling a mini atomiser which could be clicked onto the bag. It could also be incorporated into wallpaper (in this case Wellpaper) which would essentially act as wireless wallpaper, responding to emotional or physical requirements, something that could be switched off if it didn't suit everyone at a particular time. Scent Fiction would be a natural successor to scratch and sniff books. And then there's a fragrant clock idea featuring a palette of scents that change over time. There has also been exploratory work with the armed forces, with sports coaching and with customs in the area of scent recognition and pattern recognition at passport control. While Tillotson is not so keen on that last area, she is convinced that the application potential is huge.
But health and well-being are considered the most important goals so conditions such as depression, insomnia, asthma, high blood pressure, bronchitis etc are the real target. As for a realistic target, Tillotson is confident that 2020 should be an achievable goal. The World Health Organisation estimates that stress will be second only to heart disease as a serious human illness by 2020 and this is what Tillotson is aiming for. "The olfactory sense interacts with the limbic system and quality of life is improved through olfactory scents," she said.
Sensory Design & Technology Ltd has been set up as a spin out from Central Saint Martins, specialising in the development and commercialisation of technology in this area.