Dress for stress

latex body

A new fabric from Italy claims literally to make you feel good
Buying a new outfit is known to have a tonic effect. You look good, so you feel good. Now the designer Azzedine Alaia has come up with clothing that he claims not only raises your spirits but cures your ills.
 Fashion's first therapeutic fabric is made from a new jersey called Relax.  Claims that pulling on an Alaia Relax catsuit might cure tension and headaches, dispensing with the need for Valium or aspirin, sound far-fetched.  But, by protecting the body from the invisible electro-magnetic waves given off by household appliances, the fabric is said to reduce the ailments that these are believed to cause.
 Relax contains a fine filament of nylon mixed with carbon, which has already been tested and used by Nasa as a protective lining. The new fabric, developed by Ialian textile company Lineapiu in conjunction with the international chemical company BASF, combines this with cotton, viscose or wool.
 ''We wanted something that not only looked good in fashion terms, but literally makes you feel good, and we knew carbon provided shield from electromagnetic waves,'' says Giuliano Coppini, the president of Lineapiu.
 ests carried out in the Laboratory of Public Health in Ivrea, near Turin, showed that an ordinary fibre containing 6 per cent carbon helps protect those parts of the body covered. According to Professor Santi Tofani, the director of the laboratory, ''The carbonated fabric is particularly effective at reducing the electro-magnetic field in the low range of radio frequencies that abound in the atmosphere.''
 Signor Coppini offered M Alaia exclusive use of the yarn for a year. Only a few Alaia knits in this summer's range are made from Relax among them a long, ribbed-knit, hooded dress and a ruffle-edged catsuit with flared trousers but more will appear in the winter collection.
 ''It is not a miracle cloth, but I saw the demonstration in Turin and ca fait du bon,'' Mr Alaia says. He has not been able to experience the benefits of the new yarn himself: ''Can you imagine me in a little stretch dress?''
 Daniela Ballarini, a psychologist and a member of the Italian Society of Biofeedback, carried out tests measuring body tension. A model wore an Alaia anti-stress dress one day, and an ordinary sweater dress the next. On the second day, her stress level was 50 per cent higher. The psycho-knit has arrived.