Billie Whitehouse Is A 27-Year-Old 'Elon Musk Of Fashion' Who Creates Mind-Blowing Tech You Can Wear (And Wash)

Billie Whitehouse is one of seven children. Her mother is an entrepreneur who started a successful design school in Sydney, Australia with only $1,000 to her name. Two of her siblings are Olympic skiers.

Not to be outdone, 27-year-old Whitehouse is an entrepreneur who seed stage investor Sumeet Shah calls "the female Elon Musk." More accurately, she's the "Elon Musk" of fashion.

Whitehouse is a free spirit who will attend an alcohol-free dance party at 7 AM or a dinner party where everyone in the room is a stranger. When we met her for lunch last week, she had just completed a 30-mile bike ride around Manhattan on a whim. "It helps me clear my head and stay creative, so when I sit down to work I'm dialed in," Whitehouse says.

She isn't inventing hyperloops or electric cars. Her creations are barely visible, which is just how Whitehouse likes it. Whitehouse is a fashion designer who is the the co-founder of a bootstrapped company, Wearable Experiments. Unlike most wearables products, which are clunky, geeky, and light up, Whitehouse's designs are subtle. And washable.

"We don't want you to be a flashing light," Whitehouse said at a design and idea-centric conference, PSFK. "We don't want you to look or feel like a computer."

To date, Whitehouse and her co-founder Ben Moir have designed a number of garments, from risque to practical, that have technology built into the fibers. Whitehouse is the artist and fashion brains; Moir is the technology buff.

Their first joint project was a promotion for Durex called "Fundawear," underwear with vibrators in them that are controlled via mobile app. The product was pitched as a solution for long-distance relationships and a prototype was designed merely to create buzz, not for retail. Fundawear succeeded, bringing in more than 8 million YouTube views and 55,000 purchase requests.

"You can't imagine anything more awkward than asking [friends and family who tested the product], 'Would you mind telling me if that hits your junk?'" she joked during the PSFK keynote.

After the successful Durex launch, Moir and Whitehouse created their startup. They're patenting innovative new designs, and large brands are paying them to execute innovative wearables for their companies. They've resisted taking money from investors so far.

In March, the duo launched their second hit product at Texas technology conference South by Southwest. Called Alert Shirt, the invention looks like a normal athletic jersey. But when it's worn by the athletes and their fans, it "quantifies the sensation of the game" so that fans can feel some of what players are experiencing on the court or field.

The built-in technology takes data feeds, such as real-time score and tackle data, and transmits them to a mobile app. Anyone who has the Alert Shirt app downloaded will receive the data instantaneously on their phones. The shirt uses Bluetooth and touch sensors to connect with the mobile app and react to the real-time data.

For example, if a player is about to kick a field goal, they might be feeling nervous. The shirt might use the real-time data to predict that nervous feeling and tighten the material around the wearer to mimic the sensation. Or if a player gets tackled during a game, the fan might feel a rumble in his or her jersey - kind of like a Wii remote might shake while you're playing a video game.

"The Alert Shirt is designed for fans so they can feel like they're a part of the game and a little bit closer to the players, a little big closer to feeling like they're in the team," Whitehouse explained to the PSFK audience.

"It's about as close as you can get to sensations a player feels by watching the game," an Alert Shirt designer says.

Wearable Experiments built the Alert Shirt hardware, software and apparel design. It shipped 4.5 million units in three months, which Whitehouse says "nearly killed her."

The third product Moir and Whitehouse have launched is a solution to Google Maps that lets you keep your head up while walking instead of staring at a phone for directions. The contraption is a blazer called Navigate that looks like something you'd wear to work. But while you're walking around, the jacket will buzz once on your left or right shoulder to tell you exactly when and in what direction you should turn. The jacket will buzz twice on both shoulders when you've arrived at your destination.

Whitehouse and Moir are working on a few more top-secret designs for large brands. While their startup is still very much in the "experiment" phase, there may come a time when they stop producing products for other companies, and start creating a fashion line exclusively for themselves. Either way, their focus will be on designing technology you actually want to wear.

"It's important to think about connecting complex people [through design], and how do we make it irreverent and fun," Whitehouse says. "We want you to be able to have smart clothing on and feel like the clothes on your back have purpose, without having big flashing, LEDs."

So, is the forward-thinking fashionista really "the female Elon Musk?" Shah, an investor at Brand Foundry Venture Capital, stands by his statement for four reasons.

He tells Business Insider via email:

1. Both have extremely powerful minds when it comes to innovative and extremely creative projects
2. They have focused on making products for the general public regardless of their power and influence (they haven't shut people out)
3. Billie's desire to work on as many projects and help as many people within her world is a selfless move (which Elon has also done for others)
4. She is one of the best (if not the best) founders to take the concept that's lost its way (in this case, wearable technology) and make it applicable to the general public, something Elon has done within his various projects (Tesla, the future of SpaceX, etc.)

He admits that they might not be totally comparable now, but believes Whitehouse is destined for entrepreneurial greatness.

"I truly believe that Billie is set to become the lady Musk because of the path she's going towards," Shah concludes. "I would give her 3-5 years."

Here's the keynote Whitehouse gave that demos her products and explains the vision of Wearable Experiments.