Invisible Margin
Speculative Wearables for the Future of Social Interaction
Siyu Fang
Take a Glance
About the Project
Project Overview
In contemporary society, social norms are designed around the extrovert ideal, where social engagement is expected, and withdrawal is often perceived as avoidance or failure. This structure creates significant challenges for introverts, who frequently experience social anxiety, conformity pressure, and identity struggles. While mainstream social environments prefer sociability, charisma, and ease in public settings, they often fail to accommodate diverse interaction styles.
Invisible Margin is a speculative design project that challenges these dominant norms by proposing an alternative reality, one where social interaction is not dictated by strict expectations but instead adapts to individual comfort levels. Through three wearable designs, this project explores emotional connection, personal space, and gaze perception, questioning the assumptions embedded in mainstream social behaviors.
Hugget is an inflatable wearable that provides the feeling of hugging without human touch. It explores how emotional support can take alternative forms when conventional physical touch is not viable. Refudress is a wearable that can inflate into a personal retreat in public space as the wearer withdraws into it. It challenges the stigma attached to stepping away by reframing it as a strategy of self-regulation and resilience. Obscura is a pair of perceptual glasses that mediate eye contact and visual exposure with interchangeable lenses. It explores how self-regulated visibility might shift the power dynamics embedded in the act of looking.
This project shows the psychological reality of introversion and questions the supremacy of extrovert-centric paradigms of social interaction. Rather than offering prescriptive solutions, it envisions new social imaginaries that validate withdrawal, reframe silence as a form of agency, and acknowledge introversion as a vital dimension of human diversity.
Speculative Wearables
Hugget
Emotional Connection
Refudress
Personal Space & Boundary
Obscura
Gaze & Perception
Visual Outcomes
Design
Invisible Margin is a speculative design project that challenges the extrovert-centric expectations of interaction models to envision a more inclusive social paradigm. Instead of dictating how people should socialize, it asks: What if social interaction altered to fit personal comfort levels instead of pushing people to conform?
This project includes three wearable interventions: Hugget, Refudress, and Obscura. Each one speaks to a key challenge that introverts confront in an extrovert-dominated culture: making emotional connections, asserting personal space, and managing gaze pressure.
By reimagining emotional and perceptual experiences through these wearables, Invisible Margins questions the assumptions embedded in mainstream social behavior. It regards introversion as a valid human disposition deserving its own set of interaction rules rather than a deviation to be fixed.
In this other context, stillness carries agency instead of shame and withdrawal is a form of self-care, not failure. The design philosophy emphasizes developing new imaginations of social involvement that respect boundaries, value solitude, recognize differences, and reframe what social "success" could entail in a more pluralistic society.
Hugget: Intimacy Without Touch
Hugget is an inflatable wearable that provides emotional support without human touch. It responds to the challenge of emotional connection for people who may find traditional human touch overwhelming or unreachable. Hugget offers emotional comfort through an object as an alternative form of companionship.
Hugget redefines intimacy on the wearer's terms by turning physical touch from a social expectation to a choice. By mimicking a controlled embrace, its soft inflation empowers people to seek warmth and reassurance without the emotional exposure or energy drain that can come with a human hug.
It challenges the standard notion that emotional connection requires physical closeness. It asks: Can intimacy exist without touch? And how might that reshape our understanding of relationships? Hugget believes that design and technology may moderate affection while respecting individual comfort. It turns emotional connection into a personalized experience, opening up a new possibility where comfort is no longer tied to conformity.
Refudress: Right to Retreat
In many social settings, being constantly available and engaged is expected. Introverts’ personal space and boundaries are often overlooked. What can we do when our social battery is drained, but the event isn’t over yet?
Refudress is an inflatable garment that transforms a dress into a hideaway chair. It creates an instant space for the wearer to retreat within social situations, offering a moment of pause without having to leave the environment.
There are four steps make up the transformation: first, the wearer finds an unobtrusive corner and withdraws their head and arms into the garment; second, they rotate the dress 180 degrees, turning the back to the front; next, they pull their legs up into the dress; and finally, they activate the inflation mechanism, physically shifting from a socially engaged posture to a private retreat.
Stepping back can be a crucial self-regulation strategy for people who feel socially exhausted. Refudress makes this choice visible and accessible. Instead of seeing retreat as avoidance, this wearable reframes it as a way to protect energy and mental well-being. The transformation of the dress becomes a symbol of boundary-setting, helping the wearer recover without apology.
Refudress operates as a portable architecture, a term I borrow and evolve here to mean: an intimate, wearable space that reclaims physical and psychological territory for the individual. If the design of buildings defines who belongs where, then wearable architecture questions: Can we carry our boundaries with us? Can retreat be mobile, temporary, and unapologetic?
Refudress proposes that stepping back can be an empowering choice. It turns space into a dynamic negotiation, in which introverts are not passive absentees, but active agents of when, how, and whether to be present. The transformation process, both absurd and satirical, becomes a humorous but clear act of boundary-setting. It encourages us to rethink what it means to participate.
Obscura: The Politics of Gaze and Perceptual Control
Obscura is a pair of perceptual glasses that enable control over eye contact by switching the visibility of the lenses. Many introverts and socially anxious individuals experience intense gaze pressure, the discomfort of being looked at or the anxiety of making eye contact.
Obscura is inspired by the Panopticon, a prison where prisoners feel constantly watched due to an unseen guard in the central tower. This asymmetrical power dynamic sparked a question: What if we could reverse the norms of surveillance? Obscura flips this dynamic. Instead of being watched without knowing when or by whom, the wearer becomes the one who decides when and how to be seen.
The glasses include three interchangeable lenses. The first is a one-way mirror, offering minimal exposure and a strong sense of control. The wearer can see through, but others only see their own reflection. This redirects gaze pressure outward and creates a safe starting point. The second is a fluted lens that balances visibility and control. It blurs the surroundings, helping reduce sensory overload while presenting a fragmented image to others. The third is a clear lens, allowing for full exposure and openness.
Obscura draws on the theory of exposure therapy, supporting gradual adaptation to social visual attention. The wearer can switch between lenses in real time, adjusting their experience according to shifting levels of comfort and context.
Rather than treating the discomfort of looking as a personal flaw, Obscura questions the social expectations behind it. It reveals that the act of looking and being looked at is not neutral but shaped by dynamics of power and expectation. By turning visibility into a choice, it proposes a new way to participate in social life, one rooted not in constant exposure but in self-defined presence. Obscura reminds us that stepping into view should always be an invitation, not a demand.
What's Next
Conclusion
Implications and Inclusive Social Futures
As a speculative project, Invisible Margin does not propose one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, it opens up new social imaginaries that validate forms of interaction often left at the margins. By making introversion tangible and visible in the social context, it opens up a growing conversation that positions introversion as an important dimension of human diversity, along the same lines as the topic of gender, ethnicity, or disability. This work advocates that design for social engagement should include personality differences, just as it considers physical abilities or neurodiversity. These wearables carry potential social impact by prompting critical reflection and initiating meaningful conversations. When people realize why someone would want to wear something like Hugget, Refudress, or Obscura, not as a strategy to reject other people but rather to maintain their emotional balance, what new forms of empathy might emerge? Invisible Margins questions the stigma attached to the behaviors many people depend on to protect their mental health. It reinterprets quiet and withdrawal as an intentional self-care strategy. It offers a future-oriented vision, in a cultural moment when burnout and social anxiety are widespread, that imagines wearable tools to help people manage their social energy without self-doubt.
In conclusion, Invisible Margin reflects on how design might respect quieter ways of being and how withdrawal, stillness, and selective involvement can be redefined as legitimate forms of social presence. It leaves open questions about inclusion, expectations, and the space we create for difference instead of providing solutions. These wearables are not endpoints, but openings for rethinking what participation might mean in a more psychologically diverse society.