High-Tech Streetwear Designer Iddris Sandu Makes Clothes with Connectivity — Rihanna, Beyoncé and Jay-Z are Fans (Exclusive)

If these clothes could talk.

Fashion isn't all the way there yet, but high-tech designer Iddris Sandu, beloved by stars like Nipsey Hussle, Rihanna, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, has at least come up with a way for clothes to connect.

Sandu just launched Spatial Labs' Core Collection, a futuristic new streetwear line available online and at the brand's first store in Culver City, Calif. When scanned by a phone, Core clothes invite users into a new curated digital social platform called Circle, only accessible through contact with the apparel.

"We've created this incredible chip that makes anything smart, intelligent," says Sandu of the technology used on his new line of sweatshirts and sweatpants. "Clothing items that we buy have just been something that we own at one point and we eventually discard. Now what we're doing is we're giving all those objects that we associate with the ability to hold our stories in a unique way."

Scanning the small rubber emblem affixed to the apparel gives access to messages, videos, audio and more uploaded by the wearer to the Circle app. To best describe how it works, Sandu uses Marilyn Monroe as an example.

"When I think about someone like Marilyn Monroe, you even think about the dress that Kim K wore that was owned by Ripley's Estate, and there were talks around, 'Is the dress actually authentic? Is it not authentic?' All these things," he says. "But imagine if Marilyn, on that Oscars night, could have recorded a message, stored it in there with some pictures that the world has never seen."

This is far from the first time Sandu has pushed fashion towards the future. Born in Ghana and raised in the states, "I was always a more technologically proficient kid, dating back to elementary school when I was winning awards from Boeing." After teaching himself to code in over 10 programming languages, he found himself consulting for Google at age 13 and Snapchat at age 15.

But it was a chance encounter with rapper Nipsey Hussle at a Starbucks that brought him into the world of music and fashion. "I was modifying some code and then comes this super tall skinny rapper with chains on," he says of the late star. "He looks at my computer and says he thinks this is the universe saying we need to work together. Fast forward, we launched the world's first smart store together."

After partnering with Hussle on his Marathon Clothing Store, which featured QR-coded clothing tags leading to augmented reality experiences, Sandu went on to consult on tech for record labels as well as Rihanna and Beyoncé's brands. Soon he was connected to Jay-Z, who is now a multi-million dollar investor in Spatial Labs.

"When we met, he felt a bit of his own energy when he was my age and the hurdles he had to kind of overcome and obviously wanting to make it easier for the next generation," recalls Sandu. "He was like, whatever it is you're doing, I'm investing."

He's also become a mentor. "For me, being a founder of color, we don't have the blueprints of that. So with Jay, a lot of the advice I've asked him about has been around how to continuously innovate and build that scale while still being connected to the culture, which I think he's done very, very well."

Spatial Labs' first brick and mortar storefront in Culver City, Calif. opened its doors to the public on Sept. 21, showcasing the inaugural line, inspired in part by Japanese origami.

"We were thinking in 2050, when you see a cool kid just standing out, what type of garment do they have on," says Sandu.  "I wanted to create that perfect medium to where a kid in culture could see this and be like, 'nah, it's lit.' But someone also in technology could be like, 'nah, it's lit.' It's a fusion."