j@pan・Inc-JUNE 2003-No.44
DESIGNER MICHIYO INABA PRESENTED an unusual line of clothes at the spring/summer 2003 Tokyo Collection show in December. Fourteen of her designs featured flashes of silver lining. The mysterious silver sheets were in suit pockets, peeking out from between skirt slits and beneath apron dresses. The material was a nanocrystal cobalt alloy, and while it added to the funky, high-tech feel of Inaba’s collection, it also addressed a health concern: Inaba’s detachable 1.2-mm-thick sheets block electromagnetic waves.
Inaba designed the clothes to protect pregnant homemakers and wary businesswomen from the adverse health effects of electromagnetic stoves and cellular phones. The designer, herself allergic to synthetic clothes, has featured organic fabrics in past collections, but this time she was out to tackle the invisible threats of modern, high-tech devices. She is not alone in her concerns.
“The development of comfortable and healthy apparel is expected to resurrect the fabric industry while meeting the high consumer demand for health benefits,” says Kazuo Saito, a staff member specializing in fabric at Shizuoka Prefecture’s Hamamatsu Industrial Technology Center. Inaba’s efforts in the fashion world have found their way into everything from the beds people sleep in to the socks they wear.
“Consumers are getting hysterical about health and looking for something in fashion to alleviate their fears,” Inaba says. She feels dizzy while talking on a cellphone in an enclosed place, she adds. “Maybe it’s because I am sensitive, but you can’t deny the potential adverse health effects(of electromagnetic waves), even if there’s no scientific proof.”
For her spring/summer collection, Inaba collaborated with Microwave Solution, a company that makes equipment to absorb electromagnetic waves from IT devices and the electronic toll collection system on Japan’s highways. While absorbent aprons for office use are already on the market, the aprons made by Microwave Solutions and Inaba are for people using electronic cooking stoves at home.
The company expects demand to increase as housing complexes with electric stoves proliferate. Conventional electric stoves are said to emit nearly 40 milligauss of electromagnetic waves. Wearing the “armor” apron can reduce exposure to one-tenth of that amount, according to Microwave Solution president Satoshi Ogino. The aprons sell at Inaba’s store and through other channels for around 30,000, and the company was aiming for sales of 80 million in the fiscal year that ended in March.
