Pretty in optical fibers
Attention, contemporary Cinderellas: Lighting up the dance floor
may no longer be merely a figure
of speech. LumiGram SRL, an haute couture design and manufacturing company
based in Paris, makes special-occasion
clothing from woven optical fibers that literally glow in the dark.
The synthetic strands are lit along their
entire length by an LED module powered
by a battery pack. (The material is distinct
from the glow-in-the-dark reflective products of the 1980s, the company’s Web site
emphasizes.) A garment’s luminescent
color or colors – white, blue, green or red
– are determined by the built-in LED
module. The hue contrasts with the clothing’s nonbattery-powered fabric colors of,
mostly, white or black, or, for some items,
an option of blue, red, pink, green or gold.
Most of LumiGram’s sartorial offerings
would not have met with the approval of
Prince Charming’s parents. Neither the minimalist tops, including the “Butterfly” with
its tummy-tickling optical fiber tail, nor the
T-shirts with their scrolling programmable
messages promote the image of the damsel
next door. Nonetheless, with the help of two
or three 1.5-V AAA batteries, included with
the garment, the clothing does provide a
modern knight or lady with 12 hours of
party fun. As www.lumigram.com puts it,
“Your nights will never be the same.”
LumiGram’s “Butterfly,” which is made of fabric woven from optical fibers and features an optical fiber
“tail,” is illuminated by an LED module powered by 1.5-V AAA batteries.
Beneath the illusion
But just in case your fairy godmother’s
dress-conjuring powers are on the fritz,
what does this glamorous moment in the
spotlight cost? The T-shirts range from
€ 69 to €129, or $90 to $168, depending on
the complexity of the technology; party
shirts are €139 to €199, or $180 to $259.
The long, flowing – and notably more
modest – dress dubbed “Sophia” is a
pricier €1599 (just under $2100).
And what about common-folk matters
such as laundering instructions and possible electrocution from spilled punch? The
power required to illuminate the garments
is low: 3 to 4. 5 V from two or three AAA
batteries. According to the company, the
fabric does not heat up, and it cannot create an electrical shock. No mention is
made of spilled liquid as a hazard. As for
washing and handling instructions, water
temperature no higher than 70 °C (158 °F)
is advised, as is avoiding immersion of the
battery box. The garment should be drip-dried, not ironed, and must be folded correctly so as not to break the optical fibers.
A nod to eco-friendliness is that, when the
original disposable batteries have expired,
they can be replaced with 1.2-V AAA
rechargeables.
A warning to you, Cinderella – and this
caveat may or may not contain a universal
truth – at midnight, your gown will still
have that magic glow, but once dawn
breaks, it will look like any ordinary dress,
no matter how fresh the batteries. At that
point, you might want to show your fairy
godmother where the switch is.
Margaret W. Bushee
margaret.bushee@laurin.com
This dress, named
“Sophia,” is made of
patented Luminex fabric
and comes in gold, white
or black with a contrasting belt. The LEDs that
make it glow have a lifetime of 50,000 hours.
This woman’s T-shirt
has a 256-character
LED display that can be
programmed with up to
eight messages that scroll
at various speeds and
brightness levels.
