LED Gown
This was a project I worked on for my Senior STEM Capstone Project. I was inspired by Zac Posen's 2016 MET Gala gown. Throughout high school I was fascinated by LEDs and liked using them for coding. I wanted to explore different ways to implement technology in fashion, so I decided to expand on my interest of LEDs and coding.
These are the final drawings of the dress. I modernized the classic Cinderella dress. I was able modernize it by making a geometric bodice and enlarged pleats on the skirt.
These are the first drafts of the bodice and hoop skirt. One of my main goals of this project was to make it zero waste. All the pattern pieces fit together to create as little waste as possible.
The first two photos are of building the hoop skirt. There is a lining to protect the skin from the scratchy tulle. There are several layers of tulle attached to the hoop to give the skirt a nice bell shape. The picture on the far right is the final muslin bodice and skirt with the finished hoop skirt underneath.
Row fiber optics in the process of being woven into tulle fabric. Each fiber optic had to be woven in by hand, they were very delicate and broke easily. I also sanded and nicked parts of the fiber optic to disperse light through the fiber. If I did not do that, the light would be concentrated at the end where I cut it.
This was the longest step, it took about one and a half months to complete. Each fiber optic took about 5 minutes to work into the tulle and there are over 650 fiber optics in the skirt.
This photo demonstrates the way light can disperse through the fiber optic when the fiber is sanded.
Preparing the Bluetooth chip, LED lights, and microcontroller to down the code
Preparing the fiber options to be bundled and attached to the LEDS. They had to be grouped thoughtfully so that the LEDs had shimmer effect instead of large color blocking.
First light test on the bodice to make sure it was going to work
All the wires and cables were in and around the waist seam. My method of connecting the fiber optic bundles to the LEDs worked, but gravity was against me. The LEDs would pull down on the fiber bundles and either become disconnected or it would snap the fiber optics.
In the end it turned out cool and I am very proud of the end result, but I couldn't really wear it. It was comfortable to wear, but the fiber optics broke easily and the weight of the LEDs were too much for the connectors and the fibers. I was not able to hem the dress because it would have broken more fibers. While wearing it I was so afraid to move in it because I didn't want to break it. After wearing it for an hour for pictures, most of the connectors on the back left side had broken and numerous fiber optics had snapped.
