Opinion | Culture

Technology keeps getting smaller, faster and more personal. Yet one of its biggest unsolved problems has almost nothing to do with processing power. Wearable technology still struggles to look genuinely fashionable.

Smart glasses are a good example. Meta has pushed computing into Ray-Ban frames, while the broader industry is working toward glasses that can handle artificial intelligence, cameras, audio, navigation and displays. The technology is impressive. The cultural problem is that adding cameras, speakers, batteries, displays and processors to something worn on a person’s face can still make the product feel visibly technological.

That matters because clothing and accessories are not ordinary electronics. People do not choose glasses, jackets, shoes, jewelry and headphones solely by comparing specifications. They also choose them because of identity, proportion, color, culture and how an item makes them feel when they wear it.

Technology has had a few fashion wins

There have been exceptions. The Apple Watch demonstrated that a computer on the wrist could become a familiar everyday accessory. AirPods became instantly recognizable. Beats headphones went further by becoming visible fashion objects associated with music, athletes and popular culture.

Those products suggest an important distinction. Successful wearable technology does not merely need to be small enough to wear. It needs to become something people actually want to be seen wearing.

Smart glasses expose the problem

The smart-glasses market is growing quickly. IDC reported that global smart-glasses shipments grew 167% year over year in the first quarter of 2026. Meta and EssilorLuxottica have also pushed aggressively toward conventional eyewear, and the companies said at Meta Connect 2026 that their portfolio would reach more than 100 AI-glasses styles by the end of the year.

That progress is meaningful. Ray-Ban frames are far closer to ordinary fashion than early head-mounted computers. Yet the industry’s continuing effort to reduce weight, hide components and diversify frame styles illustrates the underlying challenge: the technology still has to accommodate fashion instead of disappearing inside it.

Privacy creates another obstacle. Reuters reported this week that AI glasses and other always-aware wearable devices are generating concern about cameras, microphones and recording. A wearable computer therefore has to solve several problems simultaneously. It must be useful, socially acceptable, trustworthy and attractive.

Clothing is an even bigger opportunity

The more interesting frontier may not be glasses at all. It may be ordinary clothing.

Imagine technology woven into a jacket, shirt, hat, shoe or bag so naturally that the electronics are not the first thing anyone notices. Sensors could monitor environmental conditions. Fabric could provide controls. Clothing could authenticate devices, communicate with nearby computers, provide haptic navigation, manage temperature or interact with artificial intelligence without requiring another obvious screen strapped to the body.

Smart clothing has existed experimentally for years, but it has not become a dominant consumer category. Recent academic research in Fashion and Textiles reinforces why the challenge is difficult: consumers evaluate smart clothing through both usefulness and aesthetics. Making clothing technologically interesting does not automatically make people want to wear it.

Fashion has to come first

The technology industry often approaches wearables in the opposite order. Engineers build the computer first and designers are asked to make the resulting object attractive afterward.

The next major wearable company may reverse that process. Start with something people would wear even if the electronics were removed. Then integrate computing so carefully that the garment retains its original silhouette, comfort and personality.

A fashionable jacket with invisible computing is a fundamentally different proposition from a computer disguised as a jacket.

The trillion-dollar possibility

The smartphone became one of the largest consumer markets in history partly because nearly everyone had a reason to carry one. Clothing is even more universal. People already buy shirts, shoes, jackets, glasses, watches and accessories regardless of whether technology companies participate.

That makes the intersection of fashion and computing potentially enormous. A company that develops genuinely desirable clothing and accessories with useful technology embedded almost invisibly could build a category that reaches far beyond today’s smartwatch or smart-glasses customer.

Calling such a company a future $1 trillion business is speculation, not a valuation forecast. The larger argument is that the opportunity could be massive because the winning product would not ask consumers to adopt a new piece of technology. It would place technology inside products consumers already choose to wear.

Fresh tech needs to stop looking like tech

The industry has spent decades making computers faster. The next cultural breakthrough may come from making the computer visually disappear.

When smart glasses simply look like great glasses, smart jackets simply look like great jackets, and connected accessories can sit naturally beside luxury and streetwear without announcing themselves as gadgets, wearable technology will have crossed an important threshold.

Until then, fresh technology is not quite fresh yet.

Sources and further reading: IDC smart-glasses market data; EssilorLuxottica and Meta Connect 2026 announcement; Reuters on AI wearables and privacy; Fashion and Textiles research on aesthetics and smart clothing adoption.

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