Some high-tech engineering might one day be the reason all of the literally coolest people under the sun are wearing purple clothes. According to researchers at Adelaide University, who published their findings in the adorably named scientific journal Small, the team developed a purple fabric that stays cooler than white cotton in direct sunlight.Dark clothing is what you wear if you want to cook yourself under the sun like you’re a human baked potato. Purple is an even bigger problem, since its pigments absorb green light, which is a major part of sunlight. But this team found a way around that using microscopic fibers containing a purple metal-organic framework called ZIF-67 and zinc oxide nanoparticles.The fabric they’ve created reflects 87.6 percent of incoming sunlight while emitting 96.4 percent of mid-infrared radiation. That’s a technical way of saying that it’s really good at cooling you, even in direct sunlight, and it’s all thanks to something called radiative cooling. That’s when an object gets colder by shining its heat away as an invisible light straight up into the cold emptiness of outer space.Purple Clothing Might Be the Future of Staying Cool in the SunIn outdoor tests, the fabric was 7.6 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than commercial white cotton and 11.2 degrees cooler than ordinary purple cotton. When tested over simulated skin, it dropped temps by about 14 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to 8.3 degrees for cotton and 5 degrees for conventional purple cotton.Probably the biggest advantage is that it’s neither too clunky that it’s impractical to wear nor too light that it falls apart. It’s light, flexible, breathable, and water-repellent. It maintained its cooling performance after 50 washes and even showed some resistance to ultraviolet lightThe only remaining challenge is scaling the fabric into affordable, mass-produced clothing. If researchers can pull it off, future summer fashion trends will have everyone looking like Grimace.The post This Purple Fabric Can Keep You Cooler Than White Clothes. Here’s How It Works. appeared first on VICE.