fabric and lights

I experimented with my natural fabrics and lighting. 

Organic Cotton Terry 15.8oz. 100% Organic Cotton.

Organic Cotton Terry 15.8oz. 100% Organic Cotton.

I used a lamp I have with small LED bulbs and used a variety of fabrics and textures to see what effects I got with the light shining through the materials.

Organic Cotton Terry 15.8oz. 100% Organic Cotton.

Hemp Natural Linen 6.5oz. 100% Hemp.

Bamboo Velour 8.4oz. 80% Bamboo / 20% Polyester.

Hemp Herringbone 13oz. 100% Hemp.

Organic Cotton Terry 15.8oz. 100% Organic Cotton.


This fabric (above) is my favourite. I like the texture of it and the way the light comes through.

Organic cotton terry 15.8oz. 100% organic cotton.


Next I plan to introduce colour through lighting.

fabric

This is a pack of hemp fabric swatches. 


There are many different textures to these fabrics and I like the fact that they are natural sustainable materials. They are naturally coloured so you never get the exact same shade.


I like these colours and want to look at ways to create mood and aura using plain and natural fabrics rather than coloured fabrics which would be very simple to achieve.


I want to use these natural fabrics to experiment with and see if these are suitable for light and colour therapy within fashion and clothing.

atsuko tanaka - the electric dress

Atsuko Tanaka was a pioneering Japanese avant-garde artist.

Her best known work is 'Electric Dress' created in 1956. This will have seemed like a crazy thing to do in the 1950s - making a electric dress with light bulbs. She was definitely ahead of her time.


The dress is described as a burqa-like costume made with electrical wires and large light bulbs.

Her inspiration for this was from a pharmaceutical advertisement illuminated with neon lighting.


According to the Gutai artists Tanaka's work symbolised post war Japan's rapid transformation and urbanisation.

This is wearable technology.


Not exactly useful (or even practical) but the fact that she invented this dress and got the electrical side to work was a big achievement and I think it is this that makes the dress her most known piece of work.

more wearable tech

This is a white embroidered dress with LEDs that monitor the breathing movement of the wearer around the waist via a sensor.


I love the flexible circuit attached to the dress underneath.


The dress looks very cool in action - will post video!


This is again another way someone could create their aura using fashion and technology.


Designer Synne Geirsdatter Frydenberg.

mood board

i asked a number of people - what is aura?

These are the answers so far...




Pam Holiday:
Its a kind of light around someone.




Josh Burba: 
You cant see it! Its superstition! 




Samena Metcalf:
You're personality and how others see you!




Derek Wall: 
Colours that are around you, like you have a dark aura or a red aura etc.




George Spedding: 
It's a spiritual presence that surrounds a person, IIRC the aura is also supposed to 'show' what someone is e.g affable, sinister etc.




I will add to this with more opinions as i get them.

fashion aura

When i think of aura i think of how people have their own aura or visual personality.

When you walk into a room it is the impression you give off.

I feel that fashion plays a very big part in how people judge you.

Just by wearing certain colours or clothes you can give off this 'aura'.

For example colours are very important, by wearing dark colours some people feel you are anti-social or closed off and the opposite for wearing bright funky colours.

I want to look into colour therapy, look at what colours mean and see how it relates to fashion and how people can maybe create their own aura with clothing...