Wearable Art

[cjsmith]

If I made "wearable art", what would it be?

- A snug-fitting sleeveless black leather vest with intricate geometric patterns cut out of it, letting the brilliant blue long-sleeved silk shirt underneath show through
- Hallowe'en variant: jack o'lantern face cut out, orange silk underneath
- A sweater knitted out of Kevlar
- A deep forest green velvet gown with an entire sunlit landscape scene embroidered on it in gold thread
- A fully articulated cat tail with tiny internal motors, wired for the wearer's control
- A dress whose entire visible surface is tiny LEDs
- "Wings" stretching from a long sleeve's seam down to a line along the wearer's side, based in something very light and supple such as silk so they will fold up, and covered in feathers

Y'know. Stuff.

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

You'd look good in that stuff. I like the prehensile cat tail idea. We all need one. :-)

Dare I ask what inspired this line of thinking?

[firecat]

I like all of them, but the leather vest, the cat tail (which I've seen people wearing at furry cons), and the LED dress appeal to me the most.

Just don't sell advertising space on the dress!

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

ooooooh. all of those sound beautiful. i'd love to have a kitty-tail.

Kelvar - is that the bullet-proof stuff? i can knit now, so figure out how to make/acquire kelvar thread, and we can talk! ;-)

[karenbynight.livejournal.com]

a college friend of mine made a prom dress -- out of real PROMs.

[eichin.livejournal.com]

mmm, inspiration points :-)

for the wings - you might be able to do something clever with Nitinol ("shape memory metal wire") ribs, so that they stiffen up with a little power applied...

for the LEDs - mmm, addressing is a challenge, but I bet you could just clock them from an edge (if you know how JTAG works, that's what I'm talking about) and then you'd get great ripple patterns as the dress "loads" :-) Oh, and OLED should make this easier, but probably not for another year or two (but it'll be very high res :)

with the leather - if the geometric shapes are still attached on an edge, you can tuck them and have the overall pattern effect change over the course of an evening...

cat tail - pneumatic or hydraulic bladders at joints might give a more realistic look, and an easier control mechanism (connect the tubes to bladders in pockets along the sides of a vest, press your arm against one to make the tail motion - you might even be able to make it look natural, with practice.) Though with the motors, you can have more complex actions pre-programmed [or go all hardcore and have them respond directly to changes in blood pressure and skin temperature :-)]

re the sweater - "kevlar yarn" finds rocketry supply stores - for parachute-release cords and such, at about 15c/foot in tiny quantities (probably cheaper upstream) chosen for it's fire resistance...

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

I hope you do go through with some of these :)