Light-Controlled Clothing Offers New Twist On Wearable Electronics

Fashion designer Elizabeth Bigger recently showcased her new collection Lüme at the International Symposium on Wearable Computers in Zurich, Switzerland.

Her collection featured clothing with built-in LED lights that can be controlled using a smartphone app. The collection included a dress, a tunic, and a bomber jacket. The LED lights are embedded in fabric so they don’t touch the skin of the wearer. The layers of fabric also help diffuse the light and allow for a softer glow of the lights. The electronic parts of the clothes are also easily removable to let the owners wash the garments like any other type of clothing.
Wearers of the clothing can control the light patterns of what they’re wearing to match their whole outfit or their surroundings. They can also control the lights to react to things around them. The colors of the lights on the Lüme clothes can be controlled to change in tune with the beat of music, to the weather, or the wearer’s sentiments on his or her social media feed.

According to an article on New Scientist, Bigger created the collection with her husband Luis Fraguada to come up with wearable technology that is ‘truly comfortable and wearable’ and something that can be ‘incorporated into everyday fashion.’