Indeed, wearing the right clothes can make you appear smarter.
But can your everyday wardrobe favourites themselves be smarter than they are now?
Three companies seem to think so.
And to prove it, they have reimagined everyday products to make powerful changes to your style routine.
Exhibit #1: Extremely Comfortable Stilettos 
In truth, I love to wear high heels to work everyday. But after a year or so working long hours at a client services firm, my tired feet were totally spent so I went to see a orthopedic specialist. He offered a simple solution: stop wearing stilettos, and when you do wear heels, make sure they are ugly (sorry, I meant to say low-heeled shoes with supportive insoles but seriously, that's pretty much the same thing, right?). Six years later, all that's changed is the amount of time I spend in his office.
Enter: Thesis Couture. The powerful combination of bright minds brought together by Founder, Dolly Singh, a former SpaceX talent magnet. She's used her eye for talent to bring together a fashion scientist, an astronaut, a rocket scientist, and an orthopedic surgeon (talk about a dream team!) to make the infamous stiletto more comfortable for daily wear.
How? By pushing the technology of the high-heel into the modern universe and abolishing the archaic structural composition (the common stiletto technology of today is still is nothing more than cardboard supported by a narrow metal shank).
By viewing the stiletto as a 'physics problem', the team has opted to use advanced polymers instead of metal and cardboard to build sky-high beauties that better distribute a wearer's weight, gait, and shape across the entire base of the shoe for an unparalleled user experience.
The result? A gorgeous collection of tall stilettos that really feel like you're wearing lower-heeled wedges. Welcome to the Science of Strut. What's more? Each of the 21 styles in the collection is designed in honor of a strong female icon.
Exhibit #2: Jewelry, The New Boss of Your Phone 
Attached to your phone? We all are. They provide valuable connectivity to our routine: work, family, friends and all the hobbies in between. But the flip side is a seemingly endless cycle of push notifications (some are important alerts while others less so) and it's a constant battle keeping up with individual settings! The result is a world full of busy people made busier by constantly checking our phones more than we'd like.
Luckily, the bright New Yorkers at Ringly are solving for a less phone-dependent life.
Artfully-designed costume jewelry with a sensible aesthetic allows you to part with your phone for larger chunks of the day so that you can live in the present and minimize interruptions. The jewelry connects to your phone via Bluetooth and sends you customized notifications through vibration and a subtle light on the side the piece whenever only the most important of calls or emails come through.
Exhibit #3: Your iPhone as Your Personal Tailor 
The fashion world has seen subscription and rental services offer you the ability to stop buying clothes and start renting them instead. Buy things like intimate apparel are destined for customer purchasing, and everyone is looking for the perfect fit. The team at ThirdLove (a San Francisco based-fashion startup) offers a custom bra-fitting experience using your iphone as your personal tailor. The app allows you to be fitted instantly and in the comfort of your own home. The two-step process focusses on shape and size and allows you to set up your profile so that you can re-order in future.
Did you know that 50% of women (size A-D) fall in between these standard cup sizes? So ThirdLove has solved for that by offering half-sizes. For those who are worried about the technology, the company assures customers that photos are not stored after the dimensions are uploaded; not on their servers, and not even on your photo reel. Hallelujah! Never have to step into a mall to buy a bra again.
There you have it: three products trying to be smarter than they've ever been.
And it's about time that clothing got smarter. Fashion as a mammoth commerce machine (a $40B industry globally) has been largely overlooked and has underinvested in R&D until only recently.
Luckily, the last 3 years has seen a rush of new fashion products to the marketplace, leveraging technology and science to infuse functionality and value into the apparel we wear everyday. Fashion technology is also the hottest new investment in the venture capital arena, spawning the rise of funding in what was once considered too-risky and flimsy an industry for even the most daring investor.
Investors like Campfire Capital, A2B Ventures and Resonance are focussed on funding fashion startups. Ex-business school grads and business people alike are switching out of financial services to exciting new fashion and lifestyle brands. This switchover is a phenomenon in itself granted the fashion industry has long been reserved for those of the creative class alone.
Fashion technology has brought new markets, business models, production methods, materials and ways to successfully, affordably and intimately engage with a global pool of customers.
Images c/o Thesis Couture; ThirdLove; Ringly respectively.