Trend Spotting: Lite-Brite dresses
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It’s apparently not enough to wear a show-stopping gown on the red carpet anymore. To get noticed these days, you need to literally light up the room. Pop stars Katy Perry and Rihanna have recently worn dresses illuminated from underneath by a slew of tiny LED lights.
These high-tech frocks marry Atari-era digitalism with art house surrealism — and beg a mess of questions: Does the garment heat up like a lantern? Is there an on/off switch? Will a splash of chardonnay have the wearer short-circuiting?
Perry donned a white chiffon gown designed by London-based CuteCircuit — which specializes in fusing textiles with micro electronics — to the recent Costume Institute Gala. Featuring lines of LED lights, the frock blinked merrily from pink to orange to blue to green.
And more recently during an England concert, Rihanna wore a floor-length black frock by Parisian designer Alexandre Vauthier and engineered by lighting guru Moritz Waldemeyer, who said on his website that the dark masterpiece was powered by ‘a unique combination of compressed gas systems and video capable LED circuit.’
Though we’re pretty sure the LED-dress fad will only last a few minutes, who can argue with such lucent fun?
Top photo: Katy Perry is all aglow at the 2010 Costume Institute Gala Benefit earlier this month. Credit: Stephen Lovekin / Getty Images. Bottom photo: Rihanna during UK Arena tour. Credit: Jason Sheldon / Getty Images