We’ve seen people stitching LEDs into clothing to illuminate them, but what if people could be the source of light and the garment could be the gobo or shade? The beautiful Wisp dress does just that. Created by Carmen Aguilar y Wedge and Marina Pujadas Ferre, the dress casts beautiful patterns, whether by night or day.
Based on the concept of a moire, a secondary and visually evident superimposed pattern is created when two patterns are overlaid, Wisp is an outfit fit for day and night that illuminates its wearer turning her into art. During the day, minimal movements and rotations generate unexpected patterns and visuals from the superposition of the dresses layers. Environmental factors, such as wind and gravity augment the fabrics movements while sunlight creates sparkling shadows.
Night time illumination was critical for this dress because it was created for Burning Man, a festival which encourages participants to be illuminated at night in the desert.
At night, directional LEDs are worn on the legs generating an aurea of organic geometry in permanent transformation alerting passerby’s of her presence, as well as lighting the way through the dark. Light visualizes and amplifies all movements transforming the space, creating confusion between light/shadow as well as fabric/space.
The dress is a laser cut delight, and certainly makes me want to get to a makerspace in a hurry. If you don’t have access to a lasercutter, perhaps you could consider just using simple cutting techniques with an extra sharp scissors on your own garment. Then you can read our Sparkle Skirt guide and learn how to create your own leggings or underskirt that can act as a lamp for your dress. Go snowflake!
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!