Light + dress= beautiful [finally!]

Being the new year i thought that my first post should be something about technology and something new, and while i can't guarantee its newness it is an interesting application of electronics to textiles.

After many bad attempts at integrating lighting with fashion.

Exhibit 1]

Is it really futuristic to look like a glow in the dark marshmallow.

I can see what they are trying to do by pushing the limits of fashion and technology, trying to fuse them together to make something futuristic and new. While the graphics is lovely... [i do like the little glowy spot thingys, like fireflies] i think that this is tipped much to much to the technology side that it becomes just a piece of technology and not a fashion item. Honestly, do they think that they are going make people stop and stare at it for hours on end? A glowing marshmallow? really?

They could have done so much more... so much more, integrated actual fashion techniques like pattern making, and structure into the dress. I do believe if they had done something amazing with it, it could have launched it in haute couture. I have a firm belief that electronic textile fusions is the way of the future but most of what i have seen has been these silly little gimmicky show pieces. So much new technology going to waste... anyone remember the teletubby Tshirts? That actually showed a changing image smack bang on the front? I have no idea why it didn't take off <>

Of course I'm obviously slightly ignorant to what the limitations are for the technology, it does seem that the textile of the dress is quite thick [ and spongy?] in the picture, and it was quite early on in the creation of the technology, but i haven't seen many inspiring things in this area of exploration. I mean its so vast and still not explored.

I've been thinking a lot about this and wondering if i should stick my little paws in this big mess of electrical cable and string when i saw this little number.

Its a dress by Mary Huang.... sheer poetry. This is something to finally get excited about, This is what she says about the dress, ‘In an effort to take a fresh spin on lighted clothing, I have created an illuminated scarf and dress using crocheted knit to diffuse light from LEDs to give a more organic effect.‘ SEE! it has meaning, not just oh look a dress that glows, things like this will be much more memorable and transformative to the fashion industry then just shows of technology.

There is a whole site dedicated to this kind of thing....

http://www.talk2myshirt.com/blog/archives/538

The link above is more for the interview with Mary, but yeah I'm going to have a browse though all the things there, see if it inspires me to do anything.

I realised that just creating something, just because isn't good enough, it needs to have meaning, down to the last thread, or LED in this instance.

Take that! No Photo No video! I still got pretty pictures!

So admittedly my pretty pictures are of name cards cos i wasn't allowed to take any pictures, have no clue why, i was just going to show the world, which to my knowledge for a graduating student was a good thing.

So anyway this grad exhibition [not going to mention the uni cos they might get grumpy leaking too much information, like taking photos xx]

Any ways, some pretty interesting stuff, i liked how they made the exhibition for all the design stuff that they did.

I LOVED the fashion stuff. Oh my i am so in love with a jacket by Charlotte Hicks, amazing and breathtaking, i was considering breaking the rules just so that i could have a picture of that beautiful jacket. Oh how to describe, the pattern would be the most complicated thing in the world! It is structured and yet feminine, using draping on the bell sleeves to add sophistication to the otherwise simple jacket. I hope she becomes a famous fashion designer so that one day when I'm a famous [insert product here] designer I'll be able to buy her clothes!!

On a side note some of the name cards are so awesome, Riko Chan's has this nice glossy part that says fashion designer. Her fashion stuff is equally cool, very cute, pretty jap loli type things, almost costume like very sweet.

So yeah, to sum all my rantings up, the grad exhibition was pretty good, some things obviously better than others. I preferred the fashion exhibition to the product one, not sure if that is more related to the fact that I'm female or that it was more exciting.

Water + fashion = beauty

I saw on trend watch the photo shoot done by Alix Malka, simply stunning, the composition on each piece is just beautiful. I must assume though that the images have gone through some heavy photoshop editing. So kudos have to go to both the photographer and also the image editor i suppose. Pity there is the magazine spine line in the middle of the pictures such a shame. It seems to be a popular photo style i found quite a few other people who take underwater fashion photos Zena Holloway is also another awesome underwater photographer... amazing..