A collection of garments that illuminate and change color in an instant

A lot of designers have been exploring the idea of garments that can illuminate and change color in an instant based on mood, movement and environmental factors. There are still no practical display solutions for wearable technology aside from some attempts at flexible displays, some clever applications of smart inks and Philip's investment in flexible light fabrics. But this hasn't stopped designers from exploring the possibilities. Here is a collection of projects that change color by covering the surface of the garment with LEDs. Cutecircuit Galaxy Dress Cutecircuit's Galaxy Dress may not be wearable, but it certainly is an engineering achievement. Covered in 10's of thousands of LEDs, this dress subtly shifts color and creates a gorgeous pattern of light across the entire surface. I can't help but wonder how heavy it is and how warm it gets while all the lights are on. Regardless, it's a good exploration about the possibilities.

Hussein Chalayan video dress Similar to the Galaxy Dress, Hussein Chalayan's video dress is made up of thousands of LEDs that cover the surface. He added an outer layer of fabric that defuses the light, which smoothes and softens the effect.

Philips Design Probes: Skin Dress One of Philips Design Probes labeled "Skin" examines the future integration of sensitive materials in the area of emotional sensing. This exploration covers a garment in soft deffused LEDs to illustrate how emotive technology can use pattern and color change to interact and predict the emotional state of the wearer.

A bridal application With all of this illuminated fabrics exploration, we are beginning to see attempts to bring the concepts into real world applications. Brittany Beltz integrated hundreds of LEDs into her wedding gown and surprised the audience by illuminating the garment during her first dance with her new husband.

Katy Perry's Glowing Met Costume Gala Gown (Shown in the above photo) We are also finding illuminated garments find their way into the entertainment and music industry. While attending a red carpet event for the Met Costume Gala, Katie Perry wrapped herself in an illuminated gown created by Cutecircuit. The gown included LED lights that were controlled by a switch that was hidden inside Perry's bra. Read more about this garment at ecouterre.com.

All of these solutions will have non-trivial challenges such as power and heat. Although these explorations are gorgeous, I am still waiting to see a practical application.

Top image from ecouterre.

Stylish illuminated bike garments

[gallery] Wearable technology designer Angella Mackey is working on bike garments that have lights integrated into them to help with safety and I can't get enough of her first prototype! Not only is the interaction functional and useful, the garment design is gorgeous. She's well on her way to designing a garment that has real market potential.

Syuzi Pakhchyan of Fashioning Technology describes the project "By now we've seen our fair share of LED jackets, but none have really taken the design of the coat itself into much consideration. When I discovered Angella Mackey's illuminated bicycle coats, I was immediately drawn into the design of coat first and it's functionality second. Isn't that how all wearable technology should be?" Continue reading on fashioningtech.com.

For more info on Angella Mackey, go to her portfolio site. Images from Angella Mackey's Flickr site.

An urban gaming accessory for your iPhone/iPod

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Canadian Film's Interactive Arts and Entertainment Program designers Kathleen Climie, Rose Bianchini and David McCallum have created Neighbourhoodie, which merges physical street games with online games. "Be your own video game" they say in their demonstration video. I love how the designers are thinking of ways to connect the garments to a larger and richer online experience.

Here's how they describe it on their project site: "The Neighbourhoodie is a hooded sweatshirt that augments the experience of game playing through an electronic infrastructure mounted in the garment. Neighbourhoodie explores the hoodie as a platform; what if the garment familiar to teenagers could actually enhance experiences? What modes of interaction are inherent to the garment?

The garment has a basic infrastructure of proximity sensing, speakers, and lights to augment game play. The proof-of-concept prototype is an augmented game of tag, where players are alerted to the presence of other players through unique sounds, and are given information about players' states in the game by sounds as well as lights mounted on the garment."

Continue reading on Talk2MyShirt. Images from the designers' Flickr site.

A wind powered knitting machine creates scarves

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This was sent to me by the talented designer from n-ktr.com. With the power of the wind, Studio Merel Karhof based in London, has created a knitting machine that automatically knits a scarf continuously with each breeze. When the knit gets to a desired length, it is "harvested" and packaged up as an individual scarf. Here's how Karhof describes it: "Along the façade the knitwear moves slowly trough the window into the gallery, fast at hi wind speed, slow when there is not a lot of wind. The knitted material will be harvested from time to time, and rounded of in individually labelled scarves. The labels will tell you in how much time the scarves are made and on which day. They are sold in the by the Studio Designed Wind Knitting Shop, a shop which exists on the border between the private and the public space."

Continue reading on Karhof's portfolio site or at Abitare. Images from Abitare.

A meeting with Maggie Orth of International Fashion Machines

[gallery] I met with Maggie Orth of International Fashion Machines today in her Seattle studio. After walking in and being incredibly awestruck and inspired by the work that she has strung around her studio, we had a terrific conversation about wearable technology, the challenges, the realities, and possible opportunity areas for aspiring wearable technology designers.

A large portion of the discussion was around the challenges of designing wearable technology solutions and taking them to market. There are so many challenges across many industries that will require re-tooling, rethinking and new processes that are involved with integrating technology into our clothes. Here are just a few of the thoughts that we discussed:

• The fashion industry has quick and seasonal product cycles. In the fashion industry, there is a short quarterly product cycle based on the seasons. If wearable technology is going to be successful, it needs to adapt and be flexible to this schedule.
• Manufacturing requires some retooling. There are manufacturing challenges. Retooling will need to occur to integrate the technology efficiently into the manufacturing process.
• The price is too high. The price of smart fabrics and integrated technology is high right now and the market isn't ready to drive the cost down. Designers need to think of real solutions that can target large and broad markets with high-volume orders that result in driving cost down and making the product more cost effective
• A matter of sustainability. Electronics are not the most sustainable and eco-friendly materials. Clothing is usually a short-term product. If we integrate technology, we (wearable technology designers) should consider the end-to-end cycle of the product and the materials that are going into them.
• A matter of need vs. innovative solution. We discussed ideas that are currently out there and challenged the level of innovation. Have we really seen solutions that are truly useful, innovative, and marketable?
• Materials that solve the basics. The materials are just not there yet. As an example, we discussed the lack of really good display solutions for wearables, talked about the lifecycle of e-ink and flexible displays. We are just not there yet. And we discussed when we think we will be.
• A strong business model. There are many different strategies that can be taken towards creating a real product-based and business-sustainable wearable technology company or product. We identified a few opportunity areas in this space but discussed the challenges of a sustainable business model that we have yet to see.

Overall, from manufacturing techniques to basic materials to business models, each of the areas that we discussed are non-trivial challenges, but also terrific opportunity areas for innovation in this space. In the end, however, we ended our conversation with the notion that it will take a significant cross-industry effort to reach a broad commercial audience. I believe we'll get there. Somehow.

In addition to our discussion, Maggie showed me some of her latest explorations with her gorgeous color-shifting fabric panels, which you can see in the photos. She has spent years developing a "secret sauce" to her thermochromatic ink that gives it the most vibrant saturated colors. She is also exploring the possibilities of exposing the electronics to help tell a richer story about the work.

Maggie showed me a few animated patterns that were breathtaking. You can see the detail of the hand-woven textile and the complexity of the patterns that the ink and colors make. She has truly created some amazing textural pieces that tell a rich story that also evolve over time. I can't wait to see more.

A garment that reacts to your breath

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Ontario College of Art and Design student, Hilary Hayes, has recently shared with me one of her latest wearable technology projects. The Breathe Project is a beautiful scarf that reacts to your breath. As you exhale, LEDs integrated into the scarf begin to glow in sequence. Built using a Lilypad Arduino, temperature sensor, conductive thread, bright white LEDs, purple wool yarn, here's how she describes it: "The Breathe Project is focused on creating awareness of our own breath and the breath of others as a way of reminding and being reminded of the delicacy and life force of each other and of ourselves."

I love how the interaction is subtle yet helps facilitate a new form of expression and helps keep us connected to one of the most fundamental and centering experiences: our breathing patterns.

View the Breathe Project and more of Hilary Hayes work on her portfolio site. Images from the Breathe Project.