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Go to Topshop, make a Bluetooth gizmo, stick it on your dress

Fashion retailer plans Top Pitch competition for wearable tech

High-street retailer Topshop is opening an innovation hub for wearable tech.

The fashion outlet is accepting applications for a place on a new innovation programme – Top Pitch – to develop new technology that is both useful and fashionable.

Businesses will work with Topshop during a month to develop prototypes and will pitch to Topshop owner, chairman of the Arcadia group, Sir Philip Green.

Troubled retailer BHS, which entered administration earlier this week, was formerly part of Sir Philip's retail empire.

The winning idea will be created as a product in store.

“As a brand we champion new platforms of innovation and we see wearable technology as an exciting area of further exploration. The merge of style and function has yet to have been seen in a true consumer-ready sense and our aim is to discover new-to-market, highly desirable product at accessible prices for our fashion-savvy customer," global marketing and communications director at Topshop Sheena Sauvaire said in a statement.

TopShop has worked on the program with L Marks, which created start-up incubator JLab for high-street giant John Lewis three years ago.

Wearable technology is increasingly overlapping with the fashion industry. Dresses able to connect to smartphones or studded with LED lights have featured on this year’s CES FashionWare catwalks. ®

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