Re-imagine your morning routine. Wake up, brush your teeth, and choose your outfit from a closet full of LED embedded clothes.
While this may seem farfetched, technology and fashion are overlapping now more than ever. From fitness bracelets that track your heartbeat to glowing sneakers, we are relying more and more on technology to enhance our daily lives.
Wearable technology, specifically with integrated LED lighting, has been on the rise at major fashion events such as the global Fashion Weeks. In 2012, designer Philip Treacy debuted a line of LED hats, and Dutch Princess Marilène of Orange made an appearance at the Rijksmuseum in 2014 donning an LED collar.
This perhaps unlikely trend became more of a reality at this year’s Fashion Week in London, New York and Paris as designers showcased their latest innovations on the runways. LED lighting is quickly becoming an “it” item in the fashion world.
CuteCircuit, a company that focuses on wearable technology and interactive fashion, introduced an iPhone-controlled mini skirt. That’s right: you can now control your clothing using your smartphone. Using a special Bluetooth app and a microscopic chip inside the garment, users can now change the color or pattern of their skirt. The app, “Q by CuteCircuit,” allows the user to download different patterns and connect other pieces of clothing and accessories that house the same chip. With this kind of technology, fashion is truly individual and customizable.
The company’s skirt was such a hit that its designers, Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz, turned it up a notch this at this year’s Fashion Week. The two have now connected the app to Twitter. The wearer of the garment can now create a hashtag, and have their friends’ Tweets broadcasted on their clothing when they use that specific hashtag.
If displaying your 140-character thoughts on your clothing is too revealing, consider beginning your LED style with a simple dress. Richard Nicoll featured a Disney Tinkerbell inspired dress during his 2014 show in London. The famous fairy’s contagious glow was captured in this sheer dress adorned with green LED lights, which fittingly resemble Tinkerbell’s “pixie dust.”
From the runway to the closet, high fashion is taking a high-tech turn, and, while wearing LED lighting may not be as common as wearing jeans, the future of fashion is definitely looking bright.
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