About CuteCircuit
Founded in 2004, CuteCircuit is the world’s first wearable-technology fashion brand. A pioneer in this field, CuteCircuit interweaves leading edge fashion design with emerging technologies and smart fabrics to create fashion design that not only looks beautiful, but also features magical interactive capabilities. CuteCircuit’s co-founders, Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz, come from a heritage of couture in fashion design (Valentino), and Interaction Design and Anthropology respectively.
After a decade and a half of innovation, the brand holds a number of patents in the field of wearable technology, such as 3D Spatial Audio, Haptics for Augmented Reality , Interactive Luminous Garments, Multimedia Wearable Telecommunication Devices, and Sensor Enhanced Fabric constructions.
The fashion collections presented on-schedule at New York Fashion week introduced luxury ready-to-wear fashions and accessories that can be controlled via a smartphone app to allow the wearer to change the colour and functionality of their garments at the touch of a button. CuteCircuit also recently collaborated with Chanel and Converse.
Vision
At CuteCircuit we believe that in the future our bodies will become the interface to data, and clothing will become an intelligent second skin enabling the wearers to connect with each other in a more intuitive and intimate manner.
CuteCircuit introduced internet connected clothing and touch (haptic) telecommunication with products such as the Hug Shirt in 2002 (awarded by Time magazine as one of the Best Inventions of the Year in 2006). The Galaxy Dress introduced in 2008 (part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago) remains today the world’s largest wearable luminous display and it is a truly magical and mesmerising garment.
Social media connected clothing such as the world’s first haute couture Twitter Dress was introduced in 2012. CuteCircuit also became the first fashion label to put wearable technology on the red carpet when Katy Perry wore a CuteCircuit gown to the Met Gala in 2010, and the same year CuteCircuit introduced the first line of technologically advanced ready-to-wear at Selfridges in London. The Graphene Dress, the world’s first dress made using graphene was created in 2017.
Exhibitions and Awards
Many garments from the CuteCircuit collections are on display and in collections of museums all over the world, such as the Barbican Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Museum at FIT, etc. Currently at Cooper Hewitt the Smithsonian Design Museum in New York is the SoundShirt, a garment that allows deaf audience members to feel the music during a concert through touch sensations, on display in the Access+Ability exhibition.
The SoundShirt, was honored by Fast Company in 3 Innovation by Design categories: Fashion and Beauty, Experimental, and Social Good, and in January 2019 it was selected to be part of the annual exhibition at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In 2019 CuteCircuit received the Netexplo Innovation Award from UNESCO, and this year CuteCircuit was awarded the AUGGIE Award 2020 for Biggest Societal Impact in VR and XR.
CuteCircuit’s co-founders speak on the themes of fashion, innovation, interaction design, and wearable technology at international conferences such as CES, WEAR, WIRED NextGen, TEDx, Vogue Digital, DLD, and SXSW. In April 2020 CuteCircuit started the live broadcast series about design and innovation Live with CuteCircuit, streaming on Instagram every Friday at 4pm BST.
Brand Timeline
2001
Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz meet in Italy
CuteCircuit's co-founders met at the prestigious Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, the world's first research institute dedicated to interaction design and the creation of new technologies. They started working together due to their common interest in amplifying the body's senses through technology. Prior to Ivrea Francesca worked at Valentino in Rome, and Ryan has a background in art and anthropology.
2002
The HugShirt
The world's first wearable haptic telecommunication garment, designed to answer the human's need for connectedness and intimacy.
2003
3D Augmented Reality Audio System
Exploring augmented reality scenarios while on the move thanks to a patented pioneering tridimensional audio experience. The world's first 3D-Audio technology for truly immersive Augmented Reality.
2004
CuteCircuit is founded in the USA
CuteCircuit is the world's first wearable technology fashion brand, Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz are the co-founders of CuteCircuit.
2004
1st Prize winner at Cyberart Bilbao, Spain
The HugShirt wins the first prize in the design innovation category.
2004
The First Collection
The TransforMe collection includes chameleon skirts and motion reactive evening gowns. It is featured in the Body Electric on Surface Magazine.
2005
Fashioning the Future
CuteCircuit's work is featured in Fashioning the Future by Suzanne Lee. The book gives an overview of what our tomorrow's wardrobe will look like.
2006
Time Magazine Best Invention of the Year
The HugShirt is shown at WIRED NextFest and Time Magazine selects it as one of the best inventions of the year.
2006
CuteCircuit is founded in the UK
CuteCircuit opens its design and innovation headquarters in London.
2006
CuteCircuit x SAAB
CuteCircuit launches the world's first solar powered garment.
2007
SkateHoodie at WIRED NextFest
CuteCircuit launches the first motion tracking, music playing sports jacket during WIIRED NextFest in Los Angeles.
2007
M-Dress at WIRED NextFest
CuteCircuit launches the world's first little black dress that is also a mobile phone controlled using natural gestures.
2008
The Galaxy Dress x MSI Chicago
The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago commissions the Galaxy Dress to show what the future of fashion will look like in the Fast Forward: Inventing the Future exhibition.
2009
CuteCircuit at Mobile World Congress
The HugShirt receives MWC Award from UKTI and is invited to show at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
2010
Katy Perry at MET Gala in New York
Katy Perry wears CuteCircuit to the MET Gala with the American Woman Fashioning a National Identity theme. This is the beginning of many a collaboration with Katy Perry.
2010
WWD Cover
Katy Perry is featured on the cover of WWD the day after the MET Gala. News papers all over the world also feature her photos starting a CuteCircuit mania worldwide.
2010
CuteCircuit at Selfridges
Selfridges features an exclusive menswear and womenswear collection by CuteCircuit. This marks the first time that a wearable technology fashion brand is sold in any department store.
2011
CuteCircuit x Laura Pausini
CuteCircuit creates two stunning haute couture garments for Laura Pausini's Inedito Tour.
2012
TShirtOS (now Infini-Tshirt) is launched
CuteCircuit invents the first app controlled t-shirt that can change pattern and display photos in real-time.
2012
CuteCircuit in Paris
The Armour ready to wear collection is shown during Paris Fashion Week.
2012
Twitter Dress for Nicole Scherzinger
Nicole Scherzinger wears the world's first haute couture Twitter Dress on the red carpet for the launch of the EE network in London. Fans from all over the world can share their messages on Nicole's dress.
2013
CuteCircuit creates an exclusive haute couture collection for Magnum
The haute couture collection features pink and black dresses that change colour in response to fans' votes. Celebrities such as Eiza Gonzalez wear them on the red carpet to launch the haute couture Pink and Black ice-cream flavours.
2013
Katy Perry wears CuteCircuit on American Idol
For the exclusive launch of ET during American Idol, CuteCircuit creates an incredible bodysuit for Katy's performance.
2013
WWD Cover features K-Dress
CuteCircuit is featured on the cover of Women's Wear Daily for the second time.
2013
Katy Perry wears iMiniSkirt at iTunes festival
The iMiniSkirt from the ready to wear collection features special tiger-themed imagery for the single ``Roar``.
2014
CuteCircuit shows on schedule at New York Fashion Week
CuteCircuit's Autumn/Winter collection is shown at New York Fashion Week. This marks the world's first runway show where all the models are in control of the design of their garment through an iPhone App.
2014
Mirror Handbag
CuteCircuit launches the world's first illuminated handbag during fashion week.
2014
10-year Anniversary Haute Couture Show Rome
To celebrate CuteCircuit's first 10 years, we showed a retrospective haute couture collection at the Renzo Piano designed Parco della Musica auditorium in Rome.
2015
CuteCircuit x Easyjet
CuteCircuit designs futuristic ground crew and cabin crew uniforms for British Airline EasyJet.
2016
SoundShirt is launched at Junge Symphoniker Hamburg
The HugShirt evolves into a SoundShirt: the first haptic garment that allows a deaf person to feel music during a concert.
2016
CuteCircuit's MFA Dress
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston commissions CuteCircuit with the creation of the most advanced haute couture gown exclusively for the #TechStyle exhibition.
2016
Special Issue of Wired Magazine
The latest CuteCircuit Prêt-à-Porter and Demi-Couture collections featured on the cover and a multi-page spread in Wired Magazine Special Edition about advances in fashion design and wearable technologies.
2016
Converse All-Wah shoes
CuteCircuit collaborates with Converse to create the ultimate shoe for guitar pros.
2017
Graphene Dress
In collaboration with the Manchester National Graphene Institute and INTU, CuteCircuit creates the world's first haute couture Graphene Dress.
2017
CuteCircuit x Chanel
CuteCircuit designs an exclusive collection of illuminated interactive handbags for Chanel's spring summer collection.
2018
SoundShirt at Cooper Hewitt
CuteCircuit's SoundShirt features in the Access+Ability exhibition at Cooper Hewitt in New York.
2018
Fast Company Innovation By Design Awards
Fast Company’s Innovation By Design Awards celebrate trailblazing design in business. Among 16 categories, CuteCircuit’s SoundShirt was honoured in 3 categories : Experimental, Fashion and Beauty, and Social Good.
2019
World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland
The SoundShirt 2.0 is part of the Access+Ability exhibition at the World Economic Forum. During the exhibition hundreds of participants, including those who are blind, deaf, and hard of hearing, are able to wear this full body augmented reality experience to ``feel`` the Hebrides Overture (Mendelssohn Symphony n.3) as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.
2019
UNESCO Netexplo Innovation Award 2019, Paris
CuteCircuit wins the UNESCO Netexplo Innovation Award 2019 for the SoundShirt. Ryan and Francesca received the award on stage in Paris after giving a live demo of the SoundShirt. Selected amongst 2500 innovations from all over the world by the Netexplo observatory. The award is a magnificent golden robot! Merci beaucoup!
2020
AWE XR Auggie Award Winner 2020
The SoundShirt is the winner of the Auggie Award 2020 for Biggest Societal Impact in augmented and virtual reality. Thank you to everyone who voted for us and a special thank you to all of our partners that help us bring the experience worldwide!
Exhibitions
- AWE XR, Online Global, May 2020
- Wired to Wear, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, October 2019- May 2020
- Access + Ability, Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, USA, October 2019
- Access + Ability, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, USA, June 2019
- A Queen Within: Adorned Archetypes, MOPOP, Seattle, USA, May 2019
- Digital Revolution, Guangdong Science Centre, Guangzhou, China 2019
- World Economic Forum, Access+Ability (Cooper Hewitt Museum/Smithsonian), Davos, Switzerland, January 2019
- Wardrobe of the Future, Munich Fabric Start, Munich, Germany, September, 2018
- Graphene Dress, INTU, The Great Exhibition of the North, Newcastle, UK, June, 2018
- T-Shirt: Cult, Culture, and Subversion, The Civic, Sheffield, UK, June 2018
- A Queen Within: Adorned Archetypes, New Orleans Museum of Art, USA, 2018
- Winter Lights, London, UK, 2018
- Coded Couture, Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts, Florida, USA, 2018
- Great Festival of Innovation, Hong Kong, 2018
- NK Department Store, Stockholm (UK Royal visit to Sweden), Sweden, 2018
- T-Shirt: Cult, Culture, and Subversion, Museum of Fashion and Textiles, London,2018
- Digital Revolution, WF Central, Beijing, China, 2018
- Text Me: How We Live in Language, Museum of Design Atlanta, USA, 2017
- Access + Ability, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, USA, 2017-2018
- Ghost in the Shell Launch Event, Elephant Paname, Paris, France, 2017
- Coded Couture, Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Centre, USA, 2017
- Coded Couture, Tufts University Art Gallery, USA, 2017
- Technology & the Creative Beyond, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC, USA, 2017
- Graphene Dress, INTU, Manchester, UK, 2017
- Dreamers: Moda Futuribile, Lingotto, Torino, Italy, 2017
- Fashion Festival, Gayte Lirique, Paris, France, 2017
- Animated Wonderworlds, Museum fur Gestaltung, Zurich, Switzerland, 2016
- Coded Couture, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, USA, 2016
- Coded Couture, Ulrich Museum of Art Kansas, USA, 2016
- Tech+Style, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, USA, 2016
- Utopian Bodies: Fashion Looks Forward, Stockholm, Sweden, 2016
- Digital Revolution, Zorlu Center, Istanbul, Turkey, 2016
- Digital Revolution, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece, 2016
- Altaroma Fashion Show, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2015
- Accenture, Helsinki, Finland, 2015
- Fabric of the City, The Sir John Cass School of Art, London, UK, 2015
- Carnaby street, London, UK, 2015
- Digital Revolution, Tekniska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, 2014
- Fashion Forward, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, USA, 2014
- Premiere Vision in collaboration with Eurojersey, Paris, France, 2014
- Digital Revolution, Barbican Museum, London, UK, 2014
- Fashion and Technology, Museum at FIT, New York, USA, 2012
- Twitter Dress, Science Museum, London, UK, 2012
- Made in Future, House of Lords, London, UK, 2011
- Ethical Fashion Show, Paris, France, 2010
- Materials KTN, House of Lords, London, UK, 2010
- Queen Birthday Party, British Embassy Rome, Italy, 2010
- CuteCircuit, La Rinascente, Rome, Italy, 2010
- Materials, House of Lords, London, UK, 2009
- Fast Forward: Inventing the Future, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, USA, 2008
- Futuro Textile, Kortrijk, Belgium, 2008
- Our Cyborg Future, Discovery Museum, Newcastle, UK, 2007
- Hug Shirt, Sex Museum, New York, USA, 2006
- Future Fashion Show: Wearing the Future, Pisa, Italy, 2006
- Cyber Fashion Show, Siggraph, Los Angeles, USA, 2005
- TransforMe, NEMO Science Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2005
- Salone del mobile, Milan, Italy, 2004
- BIG Torino, Torino, Italy, 2002
Publications
Books
- Utopian Bodies, Fashion Looks Forward, Liljevachs
- Digital Revolution, Barbican
- Smart Textiles for Designers: Inventing the Future of Fabric, Rebecca Pailes Friedman
- Fashioning the Future, Suzanne Lee
- Designing with Smart Textiles, Sarah Kettley
- Crafting Wearables, Guler
- Fashion + Music, Katie Baron
- Sustainable Fashion Handbook, Sandy Black
- Smart Materials in Architecture, Interior Architecture and Design, Axel Ritter
- Garments of Paradise, Susan Ryan
- Design for Personalisation, Iryna Kuksa and Tom Fisher
- Make: Wearable Electronics, Kate Harman
Television
- CuteCircuit have also appeared on: BBC News, Masaka no Mystery, ITV This Morning, NBC, CNBC, Manoto TV, Fox News, E! News, TV Globo, the Today Show, Project Runway All Stars, The Apprentice, RTL, ARTE, BBC Click, The Gadget Show, Fashion TV, TOP Moda fa Tendenza, BBC World, Bloomberg, Fashion Police, CNN, BBC Live at 5, BBC Radio 1, RAI 1.
Books (continued)
- 100 Ideas that Changed Fashion, Harriet Worsley
- Technology and Touch, Anne Cranny-Francis
- World Changing: A User’s Guide to the 21st Century, Alex Steffen, preface by Al Gore
- Sex Design, Collins Design
- Designing for Interaction, Saffer
- Interaction Design: Beyond Human Computer Interaction
- Fashionable Technology, Sabine Seymour
- The Handbook of Fashion Studies, Sandy Black
- Textile Visionaries, Bradley Quinn
- Fashion Practice, the Journal of Design, Creative Process and the Fashion Industry, BERG
- Encyclopedia Britannica: 250 Years of Excellence
Periodicals
- CuteCircuit was featured in: WIRED, Time Magazine, Financial Times, Surface, Fortune, Fast Company, Elle, Vogue, Vice, Teen Vogue, Grazia, La Repubblica, IO Donna, WWD, Forbes, Interview Magazine, Dezeen, IRK Magazine, Sunday Times, Observer, the Guardian, Corriere della Sera, Sunday Telegraph Stella Magazine, South China Morning Post, GQ, Time OUT, Metro, the Drum, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Wallpaper, New York Magazine, Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, El Mundo, the Economist.
Clients
- CuteCircuit works with corporations and museums from all over the world, here is a selection of our clients: Barbican Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, Chanel, Microsoft, Unilever, Intel, Paramount Pictures, Samsung, Benefit, Converse, Lincoln, T-Mobile, Ooredoo, Hasbro, Absolute.
Speaking Engagements
CuteCircuit’s co-founders Francesca and Ryan have spoken at more than 100 conferences worldwide
- Fashinnovation Summit, New York, September 2020
- Humans to Mars, NASA, August 2020
- The Future is Sound, London, March 2020
- Pitch at Palace 12, London, November 2019
- WCEC, London, October 2019
- WTIN, Innovate Textile and Apparel Europe, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, October 2019
- Lineapelle, Innovation Square, Milan Italy, October 2019
- Asian Leadership Conference, Seoul, Korea, May 2019
- NETEXPLO Innovation Forum, UNESCO, Paris, April 2019
- Wearable Technology Show, London, March 2019
- Imperial Lates Smart Fashion, Imperial College London, February 2019
- CES, Las Vegas, USA, January 2019
- WEAR Conference, New York, USA, 2018
- LOPEC, Munich, Germany, 2018
- IET TechStyle, London, UK, 2017
- London Fashion Tech Festival, UK, 2017
- HUGE Make Something You Love, London, UK, 2017
- WIRED Next Generation, London, UK, 2017
- ECHO, Dubai, UAE, 2017
- Wear It Berlin, Germany, 2017
- Wear Brasil, Sao Paulo, Brasil, 2017
- Wear Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 2017
- Creative Futures, London, UK, 2017
- BBC Women in Stem, London, UK, 2017
- Bath in Fashion, Bath, UK, 2016
- WEAR Conference, Boston, USA, 2016
- Wear it Smart, Montreal, Canada, 2016
- Accenture Digital, Madrid, Spain, 2016
- Wearable Technology Show, London, UK, 2016
- WIRED NextFest, Florence, Italy, 2016
- Creative Social, London, UK, 2016
- Luxury Forward, Paris, France, 2016
- WOW Talks, London, UK, 2016
- Grazia 10 Talk, London, UK, 2015
- CULT LDN Series: Fashion Led Digital Innovation, London, UK, 2015
- UnBound Digital Global, London, UK, 2015
- CODEX Innovation Summit, London, UK, 2015
- The Future Technology Summit, London, UK, 2015
- Fashion Tech Days CETI, Rubaix, France, 2015
- IOT Summit (Internet of Fashionable Things) RE-WORK, London, UK, 2015
- Accenture Digital, Madrid, Spain, 2015
- Interlaced, London, UK, 2015
- WGSN The New Wave of Wearables, London, UK, 2015
- INK, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2015
- Conde Nast Digital Day Vogue Russia, Moscow, Russia, 2015
- Wearable Technology Show, London, UK, 2015
- Power of Fashion, New York, USA, 2015
- Conde Nast College, London, UK, 2015
- Girls in ICT Day, London, UK, 2015
- Accenture Digital, Helsinki, Finland, 2015
- Founders Forum, London, UK, 2015
- The Pool: Women in Tech, London, UK, 2015
- Inhorgenta, Jewellery Inspiration Lab, Munich, Germany, 2015
- Maker Faire Europe, Rome, Italy, 2014
- Luxury 2025, Association de Luxe, Paris, France, 2014
- This Happened, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, 2014
- Innovate UK Conference, London, UK, 2014
- QEP Queen Elizabeth Prize, London, UK, 2014
- WEB SUMMIT, Dublin, Ireland, 2014
- Edinburgh Science Festival, Scotland, UK, 2014
- London Fashion Week #LFW Talks Digital, London, UK, 2014
- Maker Faire, Paris, France, 2014
- PSFK, New York, USA, 2014
- DLD Women, Munich, Germany, 2014
- Decoded Fashion NY Summit, New York, USA, 2014
- Decoded Westfield, London, UK, 2014
- TEDX, Cyprus, 2014
- Wearable Technology Show, London, UK, 2014
- Wired Next Generation, London, UK, 2014
- SXSW, Austin, Texas, 2014
- Glazed Conference, London, UK, 2014
- GREAT WEEK, UKTI Fashion Mission to Japan at LaForet, Tokyo, Japan, 2013
- DLD “Patterns that Connect”, Munich, Germany, 2013
- Holon Fashion Week, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2013
- PechaKucha, Tokyo, Japan, 2013
- PechaKucha British Embassy Tokyo, Japan, 2013
- Product Innovation Apparel, London, UK, 2013
- Little Miss Geek x Vogue, London, UK, 2013
- Fashion Tech Week, the Future of Fashion, London, UK, 2013
- Campus Party, London, UK, 2013
- INK Conference, Pune, India, 2012
- TEDX Silk Road, Istanbul, Turkey, 2012
- DEAF 2012 The Power of Things, Crafting the Future Debate, The Netherlands, 2012
- Avantex, Frankfurt, Germany, 2011
- WEAR Conference, London, UK, 2011
- 1.618 Sustainable Luxury Innovation, Paris, France, 2011
- IDMA Conference, 2010
- Nordic Exceptional Trendshop, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2010
- SIGCHI IDC Como, Italy, 2009
- Techno Threads Science Gallery Dublin, Ireland, 2009
- Made in Future, Milan, Italy, 2009
- WEAR Conference, Rome, Italy, 2009
- Mindtrek Ubiquotus Computing Summit, Tampere, Finland, 2009
- PicNic, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2009
- CTIA Wireless, Las Vegas, USA, 2009
- Fashionable Technology, V2 Institute for Unstable Media, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2009
- Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain, 2009
- Smart Fashion KTN, Milan, Italy, 2009
- Gravity Free Conference, Chicago, USA, 2008
- Campus Party, Valencia, Spain, 2008
- WEAR Conference, Washington DC, USA, 2007
- Wired NextFest, Los Angeles, USA, 2007
- Robotica, Sao Paulo, Brasil, 2007
- Avantex, Frankfurt, Germany, 2007
- Siggraph, Los Angeles, USA, 2005
- Wired Nextfest, New York, USA, 2006
- ‘How Smart are We’ Symposium at RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects, London, UK, 2006
- Future Design Days, Malmo, Sweden, 2006
- Future Fashion Show, Pisa, Italy, 2006
- Oslo fashion Week, Norsk Form Gallery, Oslo, Norway, 2006
- ISWC, Japan, 2005
- NICOGRAPH, Morioka Iwate, Japan, 2005
- NEMO Science Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2005
- CHI Conference (Chair of the Affective Computing & Emotion Session), Portland, USA, 2005
- Design and Emotion Conference, Ankara, Turkey, 2004
- The Life of Mobile Data, London, UK, 2004
- Cyberart, Bilbao, Spain, 2004
- BEAP, Australia, 2004
- DIS Designing Interactive Systems, Boston, USA, 2004
- Code and Creativity, Orono, USA, 2004
- CADE Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2004
- DIS Designing Interactive Systems, London, UK, 2002
- NTT ICC, Tokyo, Japan, 2002
- CuteCircuit’s Francesca and Ryan have also been guest lecturers at: Central Saint Martins, Royal College of Art, London College of Fashion, Polimoda, Istituto Marangoni, Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Domus Academy, Danmarks DesignSkole, K3 Malmo, Oslo School of Architecture.