A FashionWare Gamer's Holiday Gift Guide 2011

The commercial evolution of the Internet in the early 1990's turned out to be an event with far-reaching consequences that went way beyond what most experts predicted, illustrating a significant impact upon a broad a range of cultural and consumer trends to the point that it is widely considered to have redefined itself, emerging as more than simply a communications medium, but a force that drives trends in its own right, having very broad impact upon world culture.

Many of the obvious changes spawned by 'Net Culture were detectable by even the least tech-savvy members of the population, in particular the emergence of the World Wide Web as the new face of the Internet, and the importance of email as a preferred form of communication in the digital age -- but the less obvious and much larger spread of influence that the 'Net and its culture have had and, in particular, the plethora of smaller changes and new cultural insights that resulted are only recently becoming understood and recognized.

With so much of our day-to-day life being modified and improved by the Internet, and with the lion's share of those inroads in tech and information still largely unrecognized, would it surprise you to learn that even the clothing we wear has become part of this process? With Christmas approaching and the need to get unique gifts for the gamers in your life, this may very well be how you make a lasting impression and give the best gifts this year!

Ask the average user to define Software, Malware, Freeware, or Hardware, and you will instantly find yourself hearing the more common definitions of the words, with some opinion thrown into the mix, but ask them about Fashionware and chances are good that you will provoke a blank look.

By its own definition, the subject of "FashionWare" is thought to capture the excitement of new wearable and sensor-based technologies combined with style and sophistication. One approach to this new couture is to mix the traditional fashion show runway with education about how high tech is transforming fashion.

Targeting fashion aficionados and technologists -- including gamers -- some of the outfits are future-tense and some are actually available today -- with the idea being to accessorize the outfits by the use of things like netbooks, mobile phones, earpieces, jewelery, footwear -- basically either the tech we already use, or integrating tech that accessorizes established parts of fashion, all with a high tech imprimatur.

Current examples of the trend include dazzling works of LED technology woven into clothing that can be programmed to display abstract designs or even send a specific and customized message beyond a simple brand or icon, as well as solar-powered jackets that can recharge your kit, netbook's that are colored and patterned to compliment your evening wear,