Montreal-based designer Ying Gao has unveiled All Mirrors, a collection featuring garments embedded with soft mirrors and eye-tracking robotic components. These innovative designs react to the observer’s gaze, creating an interactive and ever-changing visual experience.
All Mirrors: Exploring Perception Through Interactive Design
The garments feature mirrors made from a fusion of glass and silicone, allowing flexibility while maintaining reflective properties. When someone looks at them, embedded eye-tracking technology triggers micro-actuators that cause the material to ripple and shift.
Gao, known for her explorations of interactive fashion, draws inspiration from Italian philosopher Umberto Eco’s idea that mirrors blend virtuality and reality. “Mirrors are not just reflective surfaces – they are thresholds where reality and illusion converge,” she explained.
All Mirrors: A Reflection of the Digital Age
The collection challenges conventional self-perception in a world increasingly shaped by screens and digital interactions. “Self-perception today is influenced as much by screens as by direct experience,” Gao said. “These garments embody that condition, both literally and conceptually.”
Unlike traditional mirrors, the garments do not provide a fixed reflection. Instead, they fragment and distort images, creating a dynamic and evolving perception of the wearer.
Merging Fashion and Technology
To achieve flexibility, Gao developed a hybrid material combining glass and silicone. The soft mirrors shift with movement, making the wearer appear both present and displaced. The mirror pieces are assembled using medical cotton gauze with an 18-carat gold finish, enhancing their durability.
While not intended for everyday use, the garments are functional and comparable to haute couture. Gao describes them as “a laboratory for experimentation,” built to withstand interaction while redefining materiality and movement in fashion.
Sustainable and Modular Design
The garments are designed with modular electronic components, allowing for easy maintenance and repair. Instead of traditional washing, cleaning involves localized treatments to preserve the delicate materials.
By combining fashion and technology, Gao continues to push the boundaries of textiles. “My work has always questioned how fabrics move, interact with the body, and respond to external forces,” she said. “Incorporating mirrors and robotics transforms clothing into an active participant in perception.”
Gao’s previous projects include garments that react to colors and fibrous designs that move in the presence of strangers. All Mirrors further expands her vision, redefining fashion as an interactive and thought-provoking experience.