Feathers on the shoulders of this jacket by fashion designer Birce Ozkan ruffle up when the wearer faces north.

Ozkan created the Augmented Jacket and a matching skirt to offer humans the orientation and navigation skills of birds.

"Birds have built-in biological compasses to tell them which way to fly during migration based on detecting variations in the earth's magnetic field," said Ozkan. "This gives them a freedom that humans lack."

Black cockerel feathers are attached around the collar of the jacket and fully cover the skirt. Both are made from a dark cotton-based material and feature an integrated electronic compass, which is connected to motors on the end of the feathers.

When the compass detects that the wearer is facing north, the plumage is raised up by the motors to look like a bird flapping its wings.
"During my research, what I found out is that when humans loose their way, the easiest way to reorient themselves and find their way is to face north and visualise the map," Ozkan told Dezeen.

"If the wearer looses their way, the skirt or jacket helps to find where is north and then when they face their body north, they visualise a map and can navigate based on memory."

Ozkan graduated from New York's Parsons The New School for Design in 2015. For her final project, she created a similarly nature-inspired digital garment: a dress that looses its fabric panels over time like a deciduous tree shedding its leaves.

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