Canadian designer-artist Valérie Lamontagne founded 3lectromode with the vision of innovating in the field of wearables by combining technology with customizable prêt-â-porter fashion.

Valérie and her small design group is focusing on the development of accessible wearables combining state-of-the-art technology and current fashion research, creating designs that resonate with our everyday needs as well as being sensitive to our environment.

Instead of creating design concepts that surprise and are lovely to look at, 3lectromode is commercializing the creations via their new online shop.

What’s more, you can either order the Asymmetrical Dress (in the photos) or the Symmetrical Dress as ready-to-wear for $500.- or as kit for $250.-

The kit contains everything needed for the eTextile seamstress to make an LED-embedded dress: Dress pattern and graphics printed on 100% cotton, lining pattern and circuit guides on Polyester blend, Conductive zipper, programmed LilyPad, 15 LEDs, conductive thread and batter inclusive charger.

I love this retail concept where one can chose to buy the complete functional and gorgeous looking dress or to use a kit for personalization adjustments.

The LED pattern will light up based on the selection you make when ordering the dress or kit: light sensor, temperature sensor or Accelerometer sensor.

A fabulous concept, design wise as well as business wise – it’s as unique as interactive clothing is in itself – ready for a Brave New World of fashion.

Our first technology enhanced fashion item of 2010 comes from Marina Polakoff, fashion designer and interactive technologies enthusiast who creates costumes for music and dance shows.

Marina’s gorgeous looking dresses set the right frame for a colorful and eventful wearable electronic year ahead of us.

Her garments interact with music, voice and movements, blending the appearance of the dress with the acoustic dimension of the performer.

Each of her dresses contain hundreds of mini LEDs, integrated into the fabric to diffuse the high bright LEDs for a softer, more natural appearance.

The intensity, color and light effects are controlled by the surrounding sound and movements and translated into lighting effects ranging from very subtle to highly dramatic color plays on the costumes.

I am happy to present this particular designer/work today as exactly one year ago, in the opening blog posting of 2009 I was lamenting a bit about the too techno looking clothing in the wearable electronic arena.

One year later and we can look back to various high tech fashion items from forward working designers which conceal the technology, pushing it far back and only show the effects technology can provide – in this case beautiful, magical color and sparkling light animated costumes.

These sensual yet sensational interactive fashion designs are not available in the ready-to-wear market but Marina will be more than happy to make you a tailor made Show of Light dress for your next event or party.

Want to see Marina’s dresses in action? Check out this Youtube video and this one.

Creating illuminated clothing is not just about adding light points to a garment. It easily can end up being more a kind of Christmas decoration than a style statement.

Alison Lewis is one of the eTextile artists who understands the relation between technology and fashion design perfectly as her latest creation, the Lighted Wedding Dress, created for a friends wedding, demonstrates.

The illumination element of the wedding dress comes from the under skirt which is connected with a row of snaps to the interior of the dress. A smart and insightful design feature that allows to easily remove the glowing under skirt for the daylight ceremony when there is no need/use for this glowing feature.

To achieve an even, bright spotless illumination, Alison used the fiber-optic fabric from Italian based Luminex which gives a soft yet sparkling glow.

4x AAA batteries which are located in a hidden pocket provide the power for the illuminated under skirt.

I could not agree more with Alison’s philosophy of using light elements in garments: ‘The lighting design was intended to be simple with warm and cool whites. There were no flashing bulbs or severe bright spots. The spectacle of a lighted dress is enough on its own, there was no need to over do it with intense changing colors or a blinding reflection.‘

Especially the last sentence is important to keep in mind as fashion designer as it will make the difference between flashy, cheaply light effects or classy, sophisticated textile illumination.

When it comes to select a wedding dress for this most important event in a girls  life, nothing can be too unique and eye catching except the bride itself.

As I discover again and again new fashion and clothing areas which wearable electronic is taking over, or let’s say at least is exploring new fields, the LED Wedding Dress is the most beautiful usage of LED light up clothing I have come across in my restless search of wearable electronics.

The white bridal gown has 300 LEDs embedded which radiate a warm, magical golden colored  light simulating the effect of candlelight with a soft, random flickering pattern.

The lights are arranged randomly with the density increasing towards the bottom of the skirt. The batteries are hidden inside the wider part of the skirt, and the lights can be turned on or off via remote control.

Sit back, relax and let’s take you by surprise by watching this illuminated wedding dance in the video below. For the impersonate viewer, fast forward to around 1:54 min to see the surprise.

If you want to have a similar, illuminated wedding (dress) you can have one from Enlightened which made this dress and is read to make one for you and a made-to-order basis.

[via: Gizmodiva]

Angel Chang is a innovative Fashion Designer who blends technology and fashion in the most advanced and beautiful way we have seen so far.

The way she thinks about fashion and technology is remarkable, head over to the write up we have posted back in January or to her site.

Hussein Cahalayan is doing a great job in experimenting with technology and fashion but Angel Chang is creating real world clothing that look like ‘out of this world’. Her Fall 2007 collection include great looking dresses with iPod controls. We like the way she integrates almost invisible those controls. This is what makes her creations outstanding compared to the more ‘traditional’ approach of the iPod Jackets we have seen so far.

Angel Chang is not ‘only’ using electronic functions for integration, another part of her collection has Thermochromic ink. This Thermochromic ink print pattern change their intensity/visiblity depending on the surrounding temperature. Those parts of the fabric that are closer to the skin are warmer and the print will ‘disappear’. Other parts that have less skin contact will stay clear visible.

We like love this playful use of innovative technologies in clothing in her creations. It is completely in line with Angel’s philosophy we appreciate so much:

What we need are experiments and those who are willing to experiment. We designers are too safe today — relying on the trends of the past rather than innovating for the future. – Angel Chang