Jasna Rokegem is an award-winning pioneer combining innovative fashion and cutting- edge technology. She founded Jasna Rok, the first FashionTech design lab in Belgium, which was created to reconcile advanced technologies with interactive fashion and does so by collaborating with technology partners globally. Her visionary thinking helps decision- makers in different industries imagine how to come up with more sustainable solutions. She mhas been working with companies and leaders of Nokia Bell Labs, Volkswagen, Nasa… just to name a few.
Jasna is fascinated by space and the idea of having one unique garment which becomes a living organism on its own, an extension of our bodies which creates a new way of human communication that reshapes our responses to our innermost feelings, a brand new dimension of interaction. She dreams of having one garment that rules them all!
Jasna Rok is not a product-based company but believes in services. Jasna Rok goes from speculative concepts towards future applications. Therefore in the near future, where this one garment that rules them all, doesn’t exist yet, but every new innovation is “lego” stone towards that future.
On a higher level, I believe the fashion industry and its economic system will need to change as a whole. It’s been a while where we’re feeling this system is about to collapse, racing against time to finish collections for the next season, top fashion designers committing suicide, and tons of clothing being buried beneath the ground because we have too much.
If we really want to think about sustainability, which we should as fashion is still one of the most polluting industries in the world, I foresee one garment, one item that is able to adapt itself to the wearer and grows along with it. This one piece of garment will not replace all jobs, but will simply have another business model.
In a world where we are more disconnected from each other, we lose the sensation of the people around us. Today, technology should connect us more to each other, but in reality, it separates us more than ever. Herein lies a paradox that can be solved by adding more personalized layers to our new methods of communication. Instead of sending emojis, pictures or words. A new way is needed, a new interface.
Jasna is an expert in emotion tech combined with FashTech. With her first collection Fashion on Brainwaves she provides neural feedback by measuring how the wearer feels. Brainwaves are visualized in real-time in a garment that changes color, form and shape.
Jasna’s last project (Re)Connect created as part of her artist in residency with Nokia Bell Labs is another great example of this. With (Re)Connect we’re creating new modes of empathic communication.
By building the first emotion identifier we enable humans to create more tangible connections and teach them how to apply this newly gained knowledge on themselves and others. This sentient garment will act as a smart fashionable augmented skin, enveloping its wearer with an intimate and expanded perception of himself/herself (health, emotions, thoughts), people, things, the world, and other communicating garments.
All the physical senses such as haptic and tactile interfaces will be explored to create novel modes of communication. When we see and understand ourselves clearly, we are more confident and more creative. We make sounder decisions, build stronger relationships, and communicate more effectively. High self-awareness makes us more successful.
Where will Jasna Rok be in five years?
She wants to go to the moon! As you may know, Space X has sold its first tickets to a Japanese billionaire visionary who wants to take artists into space. As we speak Jasna signed in to become part of the crew. She’d like to wear one of her Emotional Intelligent garments, and leave one on earth. This way she will be pioneering in intergalactic communication!
Awards
Graduating just five years ago, Jasna Rokegem already has a strong vision on the garments of the future and how it will add value to our daily lives. Her vision did not go unnoticed: she has been nominated as an Innovator under 35 by MIT Technology Review, received the award as a leading woman in STEM, she has been selected as Global Entrepreneur (subsequently representing Belgium at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India), and was recently invited over to the NASA Headquarters for a keynote lecture on her work, next exciting stop is SXSW in Austin, Texas. In 2020 she won the technology award in Belgium follow up of Lieve Scheire.
Jasna Roks work will be powered by Fujitsu in 2021
