A little more Hussein Chalayan...

Based upon my research and my concept boards, I looked more into Hussein Chalayan. I find that aspects of his work link to my own concepts. His use of innovative materials such as plastics and similiar materials, LED technology and use of architecture that he uses to inspire the structures of his garments, are great influences for my own work. His piece 'Before minus now' is a cloth that is made out of the same material that is used to create airplanes, which changes form by a control from a distance.

I believe his earlier work is most relevant to my own, due to the architectural qualities and use of plastics, however his 2007 collection 'Airborne' which features a dress encrusted with Swarovski crystals lit by 15,000+ flickering LED lights also ties in with my theme of reflection and lights bouncing off materials and shining through.

I think that these pictures are really beautiful and show off the collection as well as the video I have previously posted showing the making of.
I also looked at an interview with Chalayan on using LED technology within his collection, and took extracts from it, that I found relevant:

How did you go from engineering to fashion?
That was a little chain of events. At Philips [Research Labs] I worked for a research group which researched the future and projected technologies ten years ahead to see what kind of designs would develop. So we worked with wearable electronics, but that was more like a fringe interest of mine. After that I got to know Ron Arad and we collaborated for Swarovski. We made a quite famous chandelier called Lolita where you could present short messages. That was my first project in the world of design. It was quite successful from the start and it was published in lots of magazines and then I was in the middle of the design world. People got to know that I was able to deliver technical solutions. One project followed the other, and then there was this project with Hussein Chalayan.

How did you end up solving the problem of the video dress
The first thought was LEDs because I couldn’t imagine anything else and then I produced a lot of small circuits which we inserted underneath the tissue and which were able to show frequencies of light. It was like a big puzzle and all the pieces together showed a large image. Every little circuit was able to show only 4 pixels.
The fashion you create looks quite futuristic. Can you imagine people running around with LEDs on their backs in the future?

That’s a little bit difficult to predict. I can imagine that it will touch people that are really expressive and wear edgy clothes and jewelry already. But in daily life it might be a little impractical. Maybe you won’t be able to wash the clothes or something like that. There will be compromises you have to make with the technology.