A SHIRT which rolls up its own sleeves when you get too warm has been
unveiled by a tech-savvy Italian fashion house. And what鈥檚 more, its inventors
say it will never need ironing.
The fabric for the prototype shirt is woven from fibres of the shape-memory
alloy nitinol, interspersed with nylon. The alloy can be deformed, and then
returned to its original shape when heated to a certain temperature.
It is this shape memory property that is key to how the 鈥渕emory metal shirt鈥�
works. 鈥淭he sleeve fabric is programmed to shorten as soon as the room
temperature becomes a few degrees hotter,鈥� says Susan Clowes, a spokeswoman for
Corpo Nove of Florence, the shirt鈥檚 developer.
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鈥淓ven if the fabric is screwed up into a ball, pleated and creased, a blast
from a hairdryer pops it back to its former shape,鈥� Clowes says. This means the
shirt can be 鈥榠roned鈥� as you are wearing it. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a travellers鈥� dream,鈥� she
says.
And because the fabric鈥檚 weave has five nylon fibres to every nitinol fibre,
clothing made from it is also washable and non-allergenic.
But fashion victims shouldn鈥檛 expect to be able to buy one of Corpo Nove鈥檚
intelligent shirts next time they鈥檙e out shopping. The prototype shirt cost
around 拢2500 to make, and is available in any colour you
like鈥攑rovided you have a tendency to wear metallic grey, that is. 鈥淏ut it
looks distinctly bronze-coloured in some lights,鈥� says Clowes.