Robots: they took’r jerbs! Or at least, drones stood in for live models at Dolce & Gabbana’s runway during Milan fashion week, floating handbags above the heads of awed onlookers. The series of seven bags, entitled ‘Devotion,’ debuted during the ‘Secrets & Diamonds’ evening wear event. The drones looked like tiny helicopters topped by dim lightbulbs, buzzing through the room like oversized insects while handlers in white lab coats hovered nearby in case of a problem.

But the show went off without a hitch, and models didn’t lose their jobs after all, streaming in behind the drones to showcase the design house’s collection of Autumn/Winter 2018 garments. Or at least, we think they were human. Humanoid robots haven’t quite achieved this level of realistic detail just yet.

The drone show by Dolce & Gabbana comes just days after Gucci shocked audiences with some of their most avant-garde accessories yet: severed heads. In a space designed to look like an operating room at a hospital, models sauntered down the runway holding replicas of their own noggins, or in other cases lizards, snakes and even a baby dragon. What does it mean? Who knows, but at least the clothes were beautiful.

Do you have $850 burning a hole in your pocket that you’d like to spend on some bedazzled platform Crocs that look like a three-year-old’s art project? Perhaps you’d prefer to shell out thousands for the honor of sticking your arms through a plastic dry cleaning bag and calling it a dress. Yes, high fashion really is its own little world, and the desire to make a statement nearly always eclipses the need for practicality. But there are strange and unusual runway moments, and then there are ready-to-wear abominations that somehow sell out online within seconds.

Sold-Out Balenciaga Platform Crocs

Crocs are ugly, but for some people, they serve a utilitarian purpose – for walking the dog, gardening or staying comfortable while working long hours at a retail position. That’s all fine. What’s not fine is taking this intrinsically offensive rubber design, extending the platform, bejeweling the tops so they look like a kindergartener’s craft project, and then selling them for $850. But of course, fashion house Balenciaga is getting the last laugh in this situation, because this abomination sold out within minutes when they were made available for pre-order.

The Helmut Lang Freezer Bag

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbUbjG2F0eG/?taken-by=helmutlang

Sure, the insulated silver bags often used to keep frozen goods cold are shiny. So are a lot of other things. But Helmut Lang saw something special in the woven metallic material, and used it as inspiration for a $320 handbag that looks like it cost less than a dollar. They even call it ‘Freezer Bag,’ and posted an Instagram photo of the bag placed… inside a freezer.

Balenciaga’s Car Mat Skirt

Balenciaga is at it again with a skirt that looks exactly like a rubber car mat. It’s actually made of leather, but can you even tell? By all appearances, it’s a piece of cheap, possibly toxic material molded in the same way car mats often are, for $2916. You could literally staple an actual car mat around your waist and achieve the same look. It’s called Car Design Skirt, and it’s sold out.

Moschino Dry Cleaning Cape Dress

Très chic, eh? This $730 dress by Moschino could have gone for a more subtle and slightly futuristic look just by leaving off the text and tightening up the silhouette a bit, but clearly they want it to look like a dry cleaning bag. Even Cosmopolitan made fun of it. The dress, unsurprisingly, is the brainchild of fashion designer Jeremy Scott, who certainly doesn’t shy away from the gauche in his work.

Thibaut ‘Thong Jeans’

The most basic job of a pair of pants is to cover and protect the lower halves of our bodies, but utilitarianism usually goes out the window when it comes to high fashion, so perhaps it’s no surprise that somebody cut the most important parts out of a pair of jeans, left a thong-like strip in the back, and called them pants. “Thong jeans now exist so let’s officially get the apocalypse rolling,’ reads Harpers Bazaar’s piece on the Thibaut creation, which debuted at Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo in 2017 and will reportedly become available on the market this year. If you’re just too excited to wait, you can get a copycat pair from fast fashion retailer Yandy – as a Halloween costume.

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Not all wearable tech has to be a tiny smartphone on your wrist or a device that tracks how many steps you’ve taken – it can also record your memories as you see them, visibly react to your emotions, flirt with people on your behalf, warn others they’re invading your personal space or even measure your sexual performance. These unconventional wearables are also a little less dorky than usual, aiming to blend fashion and technology in a way that’s exciting,  beautiful and sometimes strange.

Robotic Jewelry by MIT Media Lab

What look, at first, like jewels or little bulbous decorative accents on a blouse suddenly start crawling around like they’ve got minds of their own. ‘Kino’ is a collection of ‘living’ jewelry from MIT Media Lab, designed to reconfigure itself in response to environmental conditions. “It is our vision that in the future, these robots will be miniaturized to the extend that they can be seamlessly integrated into existing practices of body ornamentation. With the addition of kinetic capabilities, traditionally static jewelry and accessories will start displaying life-like qualities, learning, shifting, and reconfiguring to the needs and prefereces of the wearer, also assisting in fluid presentation of self.”

Lumoscura Smog Mask by Stephanie Liu

Dazzling fiber optics inspired by shimmering white peacock feathers make the need to wear a smog mask at least a little bit more fashionable. Says designer Stephanie Liu, “Masks have always been associated with disease, fear and negativity. Some wear it in public to hide their identities, in reality it attracts attention and can generate fear and stress amongst those in their immediate surroundings. As air pollution becomes more and more of an issue in many countries, people have begun to surrender to wearing a mask for the sake of their health, however there are still a lot of people who do not wear masks for many reasons – the top three being unattractive, uncomfortable and repelling people.”

Smart Self-Defense Spider Dress by Anouk Wipprecht

People might be less likely to mess with you if the mechanical spider you’re wearing as a dress makes a sudden move. That’s the idea behind the Smart Spider Dress by Anouk Wipprecht, powered by Intel Edison. The legs of the spider constantly move, reacting to the wearer’s real-time biometrics as well as violations of social norms, like when someone invades their personal space. “Since the system based with mechanic spider legs is literally hosted on the shoulders of the wearer and attacks using the same viewing angle as the wearer, the system knows how you feel and adapts to those feelings,” says Wipprecht.

MIT Duoskin Temporary Electrical Tattoos

Anyone can create functional devices directly attached to their skin, including lights and controls for mobile devices, using an electricity-conducting gold leaf paint in a fun design that makes it look like a metallic tattoo. “We believe that in the future, on-skin electronics will no longer be black-boxed and mystified; instead they will converge toward user friendliness, extensibility, and aesthetics of body decorations, forming a DuoSkin integrated to the extent that it has seemingly disappeared,” says MIT, who refer to the project as ‘digital skin jewelry.’

i.Con Smart Condom Ring Measures Performance

No more boasting about your performance using inaccurate figures. The i.Con smart condom ring by British Condoms will know exactly how long you last, how many positions you used, ‘velocity of thrusts,’ ‘girth’ and other data, sending the information straight to your smartphone via bluetooth. One positive of this technology is, it can give users a way to measure improvement if their data is disappointing and they want to work on things. But perhaps even more valuable is the fact that the wearable comes with an ‘antibodies filter’ to detect the presence of sexually transmitted infections.

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Textiles take the place of building materials in the dramatic swooping shapes, angular folds and oversized proportions of architecturally influenced fashion, whether on a highly wearable backpack or impractical runway couture. Fashion designers play with grids, tessellation, towering shapes, baroque details and three-dimensional forms, often making use of technology like 3D printing for unexpected results.

Baroque Architecture Backpacks by Konstantin Kofta

Designer Konstantin Kofta presents ‘arcs,’ a series of backpacks taking their shapes from baroque architectural elements like column caps and flourishes. Made of leather, the stone-gray accessories have a realistic appearance. “Natural forms and curves are applicable to human architecture,” says Kofta. “Baroque architecture inspiration – where regular designs give way to curves, dramatic shapes and decoration – was transferred to sculptural leather Kofta pieces to evoke sensual delight.”

Airplane Dress by Hussein Chalayan

Gleaming white with semi-detached panels lifting up beneath a layer of tulle, Hussein Chalayan’s Airplane Dress is made of the same material used in aircraft construction and changes shape via remote control.

Spectacular Bridge-Like Creations by Winde Rienstra

Amsterdam-based fashion designer Winde Rienstra explores structure and space with her 11:11 collection, blurring the lines between clothing and objects. Stiff as corsetry and creating a sort of cage around the body, the ribbed, angled pieces call to mind suspension bridges and the flying buttresses of Gothic cathedrals.

Iris Van Herpen’s 3D Printed Fashion Revolution

An innovator in the usage of 3D printing in fashion, Iris van Herpen shakes up the status quo with exciting three-dimensional pieces of wearable sculpture characterized by rich texture and almost alien patterns that would be right at home in a sci-fi movie. Van Herpen’s creations bridge the gap between wearable technology and fashion, focusing more on the aesthetics of strange new textiles than on gadgets.

Architectural Camouflage by Snarkitecture

Architecture and design duo Snarkitecture debuts ‘Architectural Camouflage,’ a collection of apparel and accessories featuring prints of white hex tile, subway tile and marble. Stand against the right urban surface, and you’ll blend right in. The pieces are available for purchase at Print All Over Me.

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A lot of stuff made for cyclists, from rain gear to storage solutions at home, is just plain ugly. If you’re a discerning bike commuter with an eye for good design, you’ll appreciate these 17 stylish accessories that don’t sacrifice form for function, adding to a bike’s practicality in an aesthetically pleasing way.

Vadolibero Bike Butler + Shelf

Store your bike in style with Vadolibero’s two multifunctional stands. The Bike Butler is billed as “an urban-chic version of the most efficient biker wall-pocket,” with slide-out trays, drawers, a space for keys and sunglasses and a couple hooks. Keep it in the hallway as a means of organizing the small items you normally throw on a table, and corral your bike at the same time. The Bike Shelf is essentially a stage for your bike, putting it on display with lights and everything, but it’s also a functional wardrobe packed with storage space.

Six Smart Cycling Accessories by ECAL

Students at Swiss art and design school ECAL came up with a line of clever biking accessories called ‘Savoir-Faire’ for Milan Design Week 2013. These detachable accessories and modifications either combine several functions in a single object, like the brake/horn on the handlebar, or add extra functions to make a bike more adaptable for everyday use, like snow chains and bottle carriers.

Sleek & Simple Cup Holder

This minimalist cup holder will help you tote your coffee across town, and consists of no more than two rings and a steel spring, requiring no screws or glue to hold it together. Flip the cup holder over to hold drinks of varying sizes.

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