“You might find a bit of armor useful when you become queen,” Cersei Lannister recently told a female rival on Game of Thrones. But her advice could just as easily apply to women from all walks of life—particularly now, in the aftermath of a series of high-profile sexual assaults around the world. In a reflex response to the quest for a societal aegis, a number of contemporary clothing designers have found armor (or a variation thereof) useful as a form of protection for women. Most recently, three Indian engineering students designed a bra even more kick-ass than the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms’ chest plate. The so-called Society Harnessing Equipment (SHE) reportedly delivers 82 shocks in response to an unwanted touch and was designed as “retaliation against menaces in society” after last year’s gang rape in Delhi.
Lisa Larson-Walker/NWDB
In the same month that SHE was unveiled, the India Times reported that two students at India's National Institute of Fashion Technology had created an "anti-molestation jacket" that unleashes 110 volts when it detects unwanted advances. The coat (available in both denim and acrylic) was reportedly created in 2004, though it is still awaiting patent.
But India hasn’t cornered the market on protective fashion. In Japan six years ago, designer Aya Tsukioka invented what The New York Times dubbed “urban camouflage.” She reportedly took her cue from ancient ninjas (who camouflaged themselves in black at night) to create a skirt that doubled as a vending-machine disguise. She also designed an emergency "manhole bag," a flat purse that could be thrown on the ground to double as a sewer.
Aya Tsukioka demonstrates her vending-machine “urban camouflage” skirt in Tokyo. (Torin Boyd/Polaris)
Among the other latest accessories souped up to safeguard women is an “anti-rape” belt created by two Swedish teens in 2005. It includes a buckle that requires a complex path for removal. "It's like a reverse chastity belt," one of the creators toldAgence France-Presse, referring to the medieval girdle said to have been used to keep women’s virginity under lock and key (though a story in the Mirror in 2000 claimed Chinese women in Indonesia had since adapted it as a means of avoiding rape). Then there’s the new trend of what xoJane described last year as “pretty weapons designed for bad ass girls:” pepper spray disguised as lipstick, pink cellphones that double as stun guns, and even knife-wielding necklaces.
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