Smart Bras: Developing an Experience-Centred Bra Wearables Design Process with and for Mature Women

This theory and practice study developed an experience-centred design and development process for bras with “smart” capabilities, termed Bra Wearables (BW) — a subsection of smart bras with electrical, mechanical, and chemical properties. With the 2005 commercialisation and subsequent decline of Sports Bra Wearables (SBW), questions arose as to why this innovative niche failed. This study posits that the bra must evolve into BW by becoming a “woman-centred technology” (Almeida, 2017), created with women’s involvement, needs, and experience at the centre. Moreover, focus should be on marginalised women, such as mature women (MW) who are often omitted from the fashion and technology space. Underpinned by a Deweyan Pragmatist framework, a woman-centred and pragmatic research-through/into-design approach – this exploratory study follows a Four-Stage Research Process (Research, Define, Develop, and Reflect) to execute the newly created BW Design and Development Process (BWD&DP).

The “research” stage disseminates a questionnaire for Western-based mature (45 – 64 years) Black and white women. Results substantiate a Factors Affecting Bra Experience Conceptual Model, indicating the direct connection between ageing and the bra-wearing experience on MW’s feminine-sexuality, identity, and body-image. Furthermore, the questionnaire uncovers differences in mature Black and white women’s bra experience. Lastly, a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) uncovers that the design process influences BW interest, which strongly and positively influences the acceptance of BW. This denotes the significance of developing a participatory BWD&DP for BW acceptance by wearers.

The “define” stage realises the “Research & Concept Development” phase of the initial BWD&DP, focusing solely on mature Black women through a mixture of qualitative methods. Thematic analysis is used to analyse data from a generative workshop and digital dialogue, while the interview data are examined through a theory-driven codebook. The codebook underpins the interdisciplinary Bra Experience Theoretical Framework, evidencing that bra experience is complex and psychologically, socially, and affectively connected for bra wearers. Data are triangulated from the quantitative and qualitative methods to extend the Functional, Expressive, and Aesthetic (FEA) Consumer Needs Model, tying theory and practice, and developing design criteria for BW.

The “develop” stage concludes the “Research & Concept Development” phase with a participative creative workshop and enacts the “Pattern & Prototype Development” phase with a digital fit models session, design practice producing two BW prototypes, and a critique-driven focus group. Participants complete the phase by evaluating the actualised prototypes and demonstrating the importance of physically interacting with the prototypes. The design-researcher’s personal experience becomes essential as it enables insights to be accessed about intertwining hardware and traditional bra materials, processes, and new manners of designing with and for participants.

The “reflect” stage concludes the research process, allowing for reflections on the developed BWD&DP, validations from bra designers and wearable technology experts, and originality of the research methodology. This research-through/into-design approach establishes the need for empathy to centre experience throughout the BWD&DP utilising empathic conceptualisations (Surma-Aho and Hölttä-Otto, 2018) and empathy-based methods such as ‘body-storming’ (Buchenau and Fulton Suri, 2000) and ‘drawing-as-seeing’ (Mida and Casey, 2020).

This study confirms the need to utilise empathy to understand marginalised bra-wearers experiences and examine the wearer-garment experience through an interdisciplinary theoretical experiential framework to design for future garment experiences. Moreover, the developed BWD&DP suggests an artisanal approach is apt when designing experience-centred BW. The findings of this study have practical implications for smart bra and BW researchers and technologists seeking to develop new concepts, design-researchers exploring new methods of engaging wearers in the design process, and fashion researchers exploring new ways of understanding the wearer-garment relationship. Additionally, industry may find the approaches utilised to be helpful in developing an experience-centred design process.