LFW: Technology adds sparkle to fashion

Interspering digital innovations and advanced technology with fashion, Germany's top high-tech digital fashion label ElektroCouture along with six other international brands showcased fascinating creations at the ongoing Summer-Resort edition of Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) here.

Pret-a-porter designs from ElektroCouture by Lisa Lang, the driving force behind the world's first ready-to-wear fashion technology brand which was established in 2014, used interactive wearable sensor technology, along with laser cut necklaces and knitted garments. The result was spellbinding -- and the use of light technology added to the experience.

Lina Wassong, the Los Angeles trained designer who studied clothing engineering in Hamburg, brought to the ramp an amazing equalizer skirt that seemed a perfect fit for a futuristic style. The skirt was an interactive piece of clothing reacting to the waves of sounds. The integrated LEDs were arranged as equalizer bars to highlight the sound-reactive behaviour.

Alienology, by Igor Knezevic, the Los Angeles based design studio's jewellery brand presented its New Age Designs that set the ramp aglow. The "Clothoid hat" was created by a mathematical curve formula in parametric CAD software.

The line of necklaces was designed entirely digitally in 3D CGI software using only thin lines as main building blocks of 3D form, as a progression in design process.

Next up were creations by Moon Berlin.

Started in 2010 by Christian Bruns, Moon Berlin showcased handbags, heated coats, illuminated business and evening wear, jewellery and scarves, which created a lot of techno glamour on the catwalk. The fashion label was interestingly distinguished due to the subtle electronic lighting effects that are integrated into some parts of the collection.

There was also an interesting showcase by London-based brand Melissa Coleman, which specialises in e-textiles and creative technology.

The brand Sensoree worked with futuristic fabrics made from sustainable materials embedded with sensitive techno touches and had several innovative techno-fashion items. Started by Kristin Neidlinger, it had the concept of designer wearable computers, which could be therapeutic.

3lectromode by Valerie Lamontagne, the techno fashion label from Montreal, Canada had several interesting fashion concepts which started with Ilinx, a performance environment device. Its 'Strokes and Dots' was a womenswear micro collection having a series of embroidered LEDs motions or light sensors and made of digitally printed silk textiles. It was part of a micro-collection inspired by early modernist representations of speed, graphic design, abstract art and technology as well as the printwork of Russian/French textile visionary Sonia Delaunay.

The designs had a series of embroidered LEDs and a motion or light sensor, transforming the rhythm and illumination of the LEDs in tandem with the wearer's movements, or by reacting to immediate environmental light fluctuations. The garments were made of digitally printed silk textiles, electronic hardware, and hand-embroidered hard and soft circuits.

(The writer's visit is at the invitation of Lakme Fashion Week organisers. Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)