You can choose your clothes, but can you control them? A new line of clothing that incorporates tiny, flexible LEDs right into jackets and dresses could be the first fully controllable electronic clothing that鈥檚 ready for the shop rack.
The collection, called L眉me, was shown last week at the in Zurich, Switzerland. It consists of a bomber jacket, a tunic, and an open-backed dress 鈥� all of which have controllable LEDs built-in that can be controlled by a smartphone app. The LEDs are enmeshed in fabric so they don鈥檛 touch the wearer鈥檚 skin, and they shine out through several layers of fabric that diffuse the light for a softer glow.
The pattern of the fabric can be tailored with a laser cutter to make anything from polka dots to floral filigree, for instance. Their electronic components are designed to be easily removable, for when the clothes need a wash.
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In a paper presented at the conference, L眉me鈥檚 creator, fashion designer Elizabeth Bigger, wrote that wearers can 鈥渃ontrol the light pattern to match other elements in their outfit, react to a sensor event, or even echo the colours in the surrounding environment鈥�. For example, you can use the L眉me app to take a photo of a piece of clothing that you want to match with.
Feel the beat
L眉me clothing can also change colours in time with the beat of music in a club. Bigger says the app could easily be tweaked to adjust the clothing colour according to the weather, or to sentiment in a wearer鈥檚 Twitter feed.
Bigger says she started L眉me with her husband, Luis Fraguada, to answer one question: 鈥淲hy, with all this tech, is there not something truly comfortable and wearable 鈥� a little more down to earth?鈥�
When it comes to building electronics into our clothes, we have barely scratched the surface, says Victor Mateevitsi of the Electronic Visualisation Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago. But he says L眉me is a good start. 鈥淚 envision that in the future clothing itself will be a digital canvas similar to digital picture frames. People would buy 鈥榖lank鈥� clothing that they will be able to customise through 鈥榗lothing app stores鈥� 鈥� buying, downloading and installing various colours and designs.鈥�
鈥淎ll of the L眉me pieces are regular pieces of clothing,鈥� says Bigger. 鈥淭he tunic top 鈥� it鈥檚 ridiculously normal. Wearable technology needs to be more than glasses or a watch. It needs to be incorporated into everyday fashion. Tech is the new black.鈥�
