Air bags and haute couture, an unlikely combination, come together in the Hövding Invisible Helmet for bicyclists. Though this Swedish product seems ridiculous at first, “it was perhaps inevitable that the helmet evolve from hair-flattening safety necessity to accessory,” given the rising number of bike riders in metropolitan areas. Deflated, it merely looks like a jacket collar or plush scarf. However, attached sensors detect sudden changes in velocity or angle that indicate an accident. That’s when it inflates within a tenth of a second to resemble “a futuristic headpiece in a Björk music video.”
$528, hovding.com
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