Two London-based designers have created a dress embroidered with 24,000 full colour LEDs. The ‘Galaxy Dress’ claims to be the largest wearable display in the world and it will be the centerpiece of an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
“We used the smallest full-colour LEDs, flat like paper, and measuring only 2 by 2 mm,” say designers Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz in an e-mail. “The circuits are extra-thin, flexible and hand-embroidered on a layer of silk in a way that gives it stretch so the LED fabric can move like normal fabric with lightness and fluidity.” The duo run an interactive clothing company called CuteCircuit.
To diffuse the LED light, the dress has four layers of silk chiffon and a pleated silk organza crinoline skirt. The extra-thin electronics allow the dress to follow the body shape closely like normal fabric.
Instead of having one large and heavy battery, the dress is designed to run on many tiny iPod batteries hiding in the crinoline. With the batteries, the Galaxy Dress wearer can walk around — all lit up — for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. According to the designers the LED dress consumes about the same electricity as two household bulbs.
The areas without LEDs are decorated with more than 4,000 hand-applied Swarovski crystals that range in colour from clear to bright pink. The designers say this makes the dress looks good even when it is switched off.
So far, the dress hasn’t been worn by any real woman. It went straight from the fitting model to the museum.
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