In an ever-changing world of technological advancements, we find ourselves surrounded by more digital surveillance than ever. One brand in particular, Cap_able, has set out to protect our privacy through knitted garments that shield from facial recognition.
Their Manifesto Collection is the first ever design that offers this unique feature. In doing so, they address the issues of privacy and open discussions surrounding the importance of protection from misuses of biometric recognition cameras.
The Italian brand, Cap_able, recognises the problem as becoming increasingly present in our daily lives and how it could freeze the rights of individual freedom of expressions, association and free movement in public spaces.
These knitted jumpers, dresses, pants and more, contain intricate designs, mimicking patterns of dogs, zebras, giraffes, or even small people inside the fabric. An individual wearing a Cap_able garment is either unrecognisable as a human, or unrecognisable as an entity to biometric recognition cameras such as Yolo.
What goes into producing these designs?
Unlike printed fabrics, knitwear gives texture and wearability, making it more durable and comfortable. The practicality of the design allows for duality of the environments you can wear them in. In addition, knitted fabrics don’t need to be ironed and the designs will never fade or distort. Overall, their knitwear is the best fabric they could be using for the project – patented in 2021 for industrial invention.
To make it even better, through the Better Cotton Initiative, production workers have protected rights in their jobs, water use is optimised, and land and biodiversity is respected by reduced use of pesticides and chemicals.
You may be asking if there are any legal risk in wearing these? No, absolutely not. By wearing these designs you violate no laws, other than looking too good. You become unrecognisable to AI and nothing more. Those are the limits. In avoiding specific intrusive technology, you are protecting the personal data that is your identity. The use of Cap_able products constitutes the legitimate exercise of constitutionally protected fundamental rights in most democratic countries.
At the moment, designs range from 370€ to 670€ ($590 AUD to $1100 AUD) on their website. You can purchase them here. Pieces not in stock are available for pre-order. Unfortunately they only offer sizes S, M or L, so we hope to see growth in their size range as they continue to develop.
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