The future of LED clothes is finally brighter
NEW YORK — We've already seen the crowded field of LED wearables at CES, as such products try to find their places in the fashion universe.
But most fall flat for one major reason: They are way too gimmicky. When tech always comes first, and fashion always comes second, looks can appear cheesy at best.
So when VFILES, the online fashion portal, with fans like Rihanna, A$AP Rocky, CL and the likes, created its first line of wearable technology, I was very curious to see what it was all about.
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Mashable got a first look at its collaboration with XO, the tech company behind Lady Gaga's flying dress and Azealia Banks's mermaid outfit.
The collaboration, named VFILES XO, would be manufactured and sold in the next couple of months in its many stores.
This was exciting to me for a variety of reasons. For one, VFILES is one of the most relevant destinations for fashion in the digital age, where Generation Z sets the trends. Further, it was compelling that a brand, seen mostly as a purveyor for streetwear, was getting into the tech space. A rare fashion-first moment.
On Tuesday, before the brand's bi-annual VFILES Runway competition, where it flies out the best new international fashion brands to showcase at New York Fashion Week, I met up with XO's creative director, Nancy Tilbury, its CEO, Ben Males, and Julie Ann Quay, founder of VFILES.
There, while models were getting fitted for the show the next day, was a monochromatic display of apparel sitting on a rack. They ranged from hoodies, shirts, hats, backpacks, puffer coats and vests. All included fiberoptic integration with RGB LED lights.
"Imagine being at a concert and all of shirts in the audience bumping colors at the same time."
Males explained how the garments work. Via Bluetooth, each of the garments connects to an iPhone app on. From there, users tap different colors they want to wear. They range from green, red, blue, pink, purple and white. Voila, you're wearing any of those colors in an instant.
Possibly the coolest feature is that the clothing can go into Music mode, which means the clothing pulses along with any song's beats. It can even respond to your own voice. (I tested this by singing Beyonce's "XO" into the app and it responded to the cadence and tempo of my voice.)
"Imagine being at a concert and all of shirts in the audience bumping colors at the same time," Males said.
The collaboration, Quay explained, came only a couple of months ago before the holidays.
"We wanted to express individuality and think of how our community would react to technology in their hands," she said. "[It's] compelling for Gen Z, a generation that's already digital and wants to be individualistic."
Besides shirts, snapbacks and backpacks will be in production soon. The most popularly requested items will follow.
And the clothes are actually stylish, go figure. They're very relevant to the silhouettes we're seeing in streetwear right now: oversized, minimal, slick.
But it was a little underwhelming to see how quickly the batteries ran out. Males explained that when the consumer looks are in-stores, the batteries will run for five hours on one charge. I suppose that's a fair amount of time for a t-shirt, as concerts go for three hours or more. But I doubt if I, personally, would charge something every day for such little juice.
I also noticed that the integration of tech still had a ways to go. It wasn't simply a shirt that lit up. Lots of wires were woven inside, and sometimes, those wires became extremely hot.
If seamless, VFILES XO is definitely one of the only wearables I've come across that truly is stylish. It's also extremely entertaining. I could just imagine being the life of the party or being gawked at on the streets of New York at night.
And if you don't care about fashion, consider it for nighttime bike rides.
As of now, there are still a lot of kinks to sort out. But if they are able to smooth them into foolproof execution, there is no reason why these pieces wouldn't be must-haves.
If this is the future, well, it's gonna get lit.
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Topics Apps & Software Music Gadgets
David joined the Mashable team as its first fashion hire. He's written for the Wall Street Journal, Elle, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire, Details, Nylon, Refinery29, Fashionista, and covered the men's market at Women's Wear Daily. David has appeared on E!, Vh1, the Style network, and was a stylist at Capitol records.
