Richard Nicoll’s Tinkerbell inspired dress lights up the runway at London Fashion Week #WearableWednesday

NewImage

Via Forbes.

…Created in collaboration with London-based fashion and technology company Studio XO, this slip dress was made from a fibre optic fabric activated by high intensity LEDs tailored within it. The result was almost like an ethereal glow.

As Matthew Drinkwater, head of the Fashion Innovation Agency, which brought Richard Nicoll, Studio XO and Disney together, said: “It created a magical pixie dust effect down the catwalk.” And that wasn’t far off the truth. The typically frosty fashion crowd accordingly gave a very positive reception.

The Independent referred to it as “Tinkerbell for the 21st Century”, while Tatler’s fashion associate tweeted: “FAINTING over the opening look at Richard Nicoll – a light up fibre optic LED minidress. HELL YES.”

“It was imperative for Richard that what went down the catwalk was ‘fashion’ not ‘tech’. The gasps were audible as the dress appeared, it was a huge moment for fashion technology. We’d built something that was truly desirable,” Drinkwater added.

We’ve become so caught up with wearables being about devices that offer us some form of communication strapped to our arms rather than sat in our pockets, or tracking our steps and measuring our heart rates – and trying to tie that in so wholeheartedly with the fashion industry – that maybe we’ve just forgotten that what we’re actually after is something that just genuinely looks great…

…Speaking at a fashion and tech talk hosted by the British Fashion Council during London Fashion Week, Nancy Tilbury, co-founder and director of Studio XO, said: “The technology is starting to disappear making it the ideal time for the fashion industry to get involved. The textile world is about to come alive because of these wonderful new technologies.”

She imagines a future less than 10 years away where we will be able to change the surface of our clothes; where we’ll be able to walk into a room and transform what we’re wearing like a chameleon does his skin.

Drinkwater refers to the Richard Nicoll project as “a stepping stone to designers genuinely using hi-tech materials within their collection as a matter of course”. It’s important that it doesn’t feel like the ‘jarring tech-piece’, he explained. “I’m asked regularly what clothes will look like in the future and I really believe that if fashion tech is to be successful then they will look as they do now. I want the clothes to be the story, [so] the tech must be integrated seamlessly.”

Read more.

NewImage

NewImage


Flora breadboard is 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!


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.