Museum of Science and Industry

The gold shirt can change from daywear to eveningwear in a matter of minutes. The heat from a hair dryer crinkles the Nitinol shape memory threads woven into the shirt. The silver shirt uses the same technology to automatically “roll up” its sleeves when it is hot out, but its additional innovation is that its entire fabric is woven from shape memory threads (rather than having parallel Nitinol threads added after weaving). Called Oricalco textile, this fabric has been the subject of research about its potential additional uses, such as in coronary stents.

Museum of Science and Industry Collection.