The ‘Smart Second Skin’ dress (2002) was designed to illustrate a responsive fabric as a new method to deliver self-programmable fragrances under software control to enhance user experience and for people living with Affective Disorders. Inspired by a science fiction quote from author J.G.Ballard -"Fashion is the recognition that a fully sentient being should wear its nervous system externally",  the dress focused on the neurobiological delivery mechanisms found under human skin as a method to deliver "personalised fragrances" to control erratic mood swings. This work built on earlier PhD textile research from the Royal College of Art (1997) and  Smart Second Skin prototypes presented at Charmed Technology's 'Brave New Unwired World runway show in London (2000). 

This conceptual garment was the idea of Dr Jenny Tillotson as a tool to help manage to live with bipolar disorder and designed by ADELINE ANDRE Haute Couture (funded by an Arts & Humanities Research Board award). The dress was developed as a creative garment prototype to illustrate a future intelligent fabric interacting with human emotions and limbic system in the brain, whereby the aroma dimension is an integral part of the end user’s sensory experience. By mimicking the human body - in particular, the circulation system, the senses and scent glands - the idea is that fragrances are diffused from micro-emitters embedded in the fabric, depending on the different moods and emotions of the user. The purpose is to offer direct life-enhancing and analgesic assistance through different mechanisms’ whilst soothing, relaxing, stimulating or invigorating the wearer. 

The dress was specifically designed as an interface between the body and medical micro-tubing, to test and prepare the basis for a future interactive system by fusing a "neurobiological" fabric membrane consisting of textile elements with fine tubing (finer than a human hair), MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems), scent reservoirs, piezo nozzles and biometric sensors (this method is documented as a "Second Skin" textile in the eScent wearable technology patent. awarded in 2009). In this context, the membrane is analogous to the human body, brain and skin thus facilitating interaction between the three membranes, using the blood signals and bodily fluids of the human system. Clothing becomes an almost living organism: the microfluidic technology as an internal pump represents the heart of the fabric, the tubing represents the nervous and respiratory systems and the computer software represents the limbic system in the brain to control human emotions and olfactory experiences. 

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The Smart Second Skin project was presented as an interactive scent installation at e-Culture Fair (Amsterdam 2003), the Cheltenham Science Festival (2004) and at the 'Touch Me' exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum (2006). The purpose was to demonstrate a smart garment interacting with the wearer’s changing moods by releasing the appropriate aroma in response to emotional triggers, for example, joy, fear, anger or sadness. The known effective potential of the sense of smell to regulate mood and psychological state suggests that fragrance molecules can be worn as a tool on the body to create an “emotional support system.” By wearing scent in this way, clothes create active “Scentsory” properties, by offering new efficient qualities to benefit wellbeing depending on the lifestyle of the end-user. The clothes generate olfactory experiences by relieving tension and boosting self-esteem.

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The Smart Second Skin dress lay the foundation for a new aroma delivery method, leading to “eScent, a collaborative project with analytical chemist Professor Andreas Manz, a pioneer of “lab-on-a-chip” and the novel concept “μTAS” (which describes a device that automates and includes all necessary steps for chemical analysis of a sample, e.g. sampling, sample transport, filtration, dilution, chemical reactions, separation and detection).

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