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I will admit that some of my love of “light up” fashion is that I am still a five year old at heart who is incapable of resisting anything that shines or glows. However, “light up” fashion has already come a long way from Santa Lucia traditions of girls wearing candles in wreaths, and has much farther to go as LEDs (light emitting diodes) and other fiber optics become cheaper, lighter, and easier to use. And as technology becomes cheaper and lighter, it becomes more and more likely that it will be used in mainstream fashions (vs. slightly in the past raver fashions.)
For instance, it is already usual to go to a club (at least of certain types) and see people wearing light up jewelry or bands. Elwire, for instance (Elwirepros.com ) sells light weight glow in the dark wire attached to battery packs that can be hung from clothing or worn as jewelry. And it is not hard to find “high-tech” jewelry, such as necklaces that display video clips or pictures, or earrings that light up.
I will admit that most of this is still fairly gimmicky. There is relatively little “serious fashion” at the moment that lights up, glows, or plays movies on demand. On the other hand, I see no reason, either, as to why serious fashion designers cannot move from “gimmicks” to something a bit more elegant and refined.
For instance, Lumigram (Lumigram.com) manufactures cloth with fiber optic cables threaded through it so that the entire cloth lights up (rather than a single wire). While I would be among the first to admit that the majority of their selection is more geared towards the raver crowd than to the high fashion crowd, much of what they are doing with fiber optics and clothing and home decor demonstrates that it would not be impossible to project how their product could be used in a high fashion setting to interesting and artistic effect.
Going even farther into the future – if we can light up fabric, why can't we play videos on it? Could you imagine the fun of being able to program your shirt to appear however you wanted it to appear, depending on your mood that day? Or even to change throughout the day, depending on where you were and what you'd be doing? (The ultimate in day to evening!) Or perhaps to continually play a video stream? (For instance, rather than wearing a T-shirt that says “the Simpsons”, your T-shirt could be playing your favorite clips from the show all day.) All of this is already possible (although difficult), and is becoming easier and cheaper with time. Before long, it not only will be possible, but with all probability, will be being done by mainstream fashion.
Another possibility is invisibility. While the US Army is purportedly near an “invisibility cloak” (see this patent and this news article for more details and a bit on how “invisibility” works if you are technically minded), it is easy enough to imagine this being the hit of the season. Just imagine the model walking down the runway in a green jumpsuit when suddenly her leg vanishes. Then her arm. Then part of her hand. Perhaps now there is a hole straight through the model?
Regardless, it seems as though fashion is only just now even considering some of the possibilities of using electronics to light up fashion. And in time, with the cost and weight of LEDs and batteries growing less every day, the use of LEDs and other fiber optics in fashion is only likely to increase.
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Tuesday, 08 December 2009
I will admit that some of my love of “light up” fashion is that I am still a five year old at heart who is incapable of resisting anything that shines or glows. However, “light up” fashion has already come a long way from Santa Lucia traditions of girls wearing candles in wreaths, and has...
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