In the last few years, More and more designers are exploring the best ways for coupling fashion and technology in their fashion collections or technological creations. LEDs, conductive threads, special fabrics become the new matter of a futuristic style made of electrons and fabric fibres. Hussein Chalayan, British/Turkish Cypriot fashion designer, is the most vanguardists in this matter with his magnificent luminescent dresses or opening up fabrics, like in the “Transformer dresses”.
“Transformer dresses” by hussein Chalayan
“Video Dress” by Hussein Chalayan
The Danish design studio Diffus created the ‘Climate Dress’, an elegant dress that surpasses the mere boundary of Haut Couture to meet that of social awareness towards air pollution. This special glowing dress, more than being beautiful in its minimalistic cut and tiny precious details, is a real story-teller about the surrounding CO2 concentration. Hundreds of tiny LEDs integrated into an intricate embroidery pattern light up the CO2 sensing dress as CO2 changes in the nearby surroundings, varying the lighting mode from slow, regular light pulsations to short and hectic. This project was created with Lilypad Arduino microprocessor, hundreds of LEDs, a CO2 sensor and tens of metres of conductive thread.
Philips Design has developed a series of dynamic garments intended for demonstration purposes only, that demonstrate how electronics can be incorporated into fabrics and garments in order to express the emotions and personality of the wearer. ‘Bubelle’, is a prototyped dress surrounded by a delicate ‘bubble’ illuminated by patterns that changed dependent on skin contact- and ‘Frison’, a body suit that reacts to being blown on by igniting a private constellation of tiny LEDs.
