Lumen Couture, a design house line fusing tech and fashion, recently launched designs featuring new cutting edge-technology. The designs feature innovative inserts (a thin flexible LED matrix) that can display videos, text, and images controlled via bluetooth from a phone. The garments also respond to music with an equalizer visualizer functionality.
With the ability to change images and videos instantly through a phone app, the designs offer limitless options in the colours, images, and themes that they can adapt to. In a world of fast-fashion and changing trends, founder, Chelsea Klukas, sought classic designs that can adapt to rapidly-changing culture and be sustainable. The app that controls the panels also offers a ‘gif’ option, embracing the youth culture of trends and memes where an image will have brief cultural relevance. The founder hopes that instead of purchasing new t-shirts and clothing every time a new trend emerges, items in her line will have a longer and more sustainable lifespan: without sacrificing self-expression, according to a media statement by the company.Lumen Couture, a design house line fusing tech and fashion, recently launched designs featuring new cutting edge-technology. The designs feature innovative inserts (a thin flexible LED matrix) that can display videos, text, and images controlled via bluetooth from a phone. The garments also respond to music with an equalizer visualizer functionality.#
Klukas has previously debuted designs at CES, participating in tech-forward fashion shows from 2014-2019. With her new work she is focusing on fashion-forward designs and moving away from novelty, and decided to move away from CES and launch at a fashion show in a Seattle nightclub instead.
Earlier designs from Lumen Couture incorporate the ability to change colours and patterns by the use of remote controllers, and compatibility with a variety of sensors that monitor temperature, pulse, and sound. Lumen Couture’s designs offer the possibilities of having your belt pulse to the music, or your dress flash with a warning red tone when your heart rate indicates fear or anxiety.
With an arts education that led to an unexpected career in tech, Klukas started designing fashion with integrated technology in 2013, initially focusing on runway shows, performance art and spectacle. After years of producing runway work, she desired to create designs that were street-wear friendly and lead with design and fashion. The design, programming, and electronics components are completed end-to-end by the designer herself, and she has a mission of inspiring women to explore tech and robotics through fashion and arts.
The goal of the line is to be affordable, durable, and even washable. The new collection, titled ‘The Matrix Collection’ after the flexible LED matrix, is available for retail and special order with designs starting at $75. Klukas has also released the tech components to the community to inspire other designers to explore the integration of tech and fashion.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (GK)
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