BBC News | EUROPE | Smart shirt rolls up its sleeves

BBC News Online: World: Europe

Thursday, 26 July, 2001, 13:48 GMT 14:48 UK

Smart shirt rolls up its sleeves

Italian fashion designers have come up with the most trouble-free shirt known to man. Not only does it not need ironing, but it will even roll up its own sleeves.

Even if the fabric is screwed up into a ball, pleated and creased, a blast from a hairdryer pops it back to its former shape
Susan Clowes

"It's a traveller's dream," says a spokeswoman for the Corpo Nove fashion house in Florence, Susan Clowes.

The shirt's special qualities stem from its remarkable memory.

It is woven from fibres of the "shape-memory alloy" nitinol, interspersed with nylon. When heated to a certain temperature, the shirt returns to its original shape.

"Even if the fabric is screwed up into a ball, pleated and creased, a blast from a hairdryer pops it back to its former shape," Ms Clowes told the New Scientist magazine.

Cooling power

And when the temperature rises, the shirt knows how to cool off.

"The sleeve fabric is 'programmed' to shorten as soon as the room temperature becomes a few degrees hotter," Ms Clowes explains.

Despite its extraordinary powers, the shirt may not appeal to everyone's taste.

For one thing, you have to have a penchant for metallic grey - the only colour available.

For another, you have to have a spare Ł2,500 ($3,750) to hand - the cost of making the prototype.