Fiber optic dress changes color on a whim

LAS VEGAS - The techno-chic with a few thousand dollars to spare can sport outfits that can change color on a whim.

London-based designer Amy Rainbow Winters showed just how in a FashionWare area at the Consumer Electronics Show here on Wednesday.

On display was a dress she made of fabric with fiber optics woven in and sensors in the sleeves. Light traveled through the cloth, which glowed blue. With a touch of a sleeve, Winters changed the color.

"If you feel like having a purple, the dress will be purple," Winters said. "If you later feel like having red, you have red. You just look at the sleeve and decide what color you want."

Winters designs fabric and clothes, then collaborates with technologists to made the materials needed. She works with many techno-fabrics, including some that react to sound, sun or water.

Nearby she had on display a dress with motion sensors in the cloth that changed colors if the wearer jumped.

Fabric she creates can be made into just about any garment.

"The fabric can be anything; pants, shirts, dresses, hats...," Winters said. "If someone is going to wear Google Glass they might as well wear fiber-optic pants."

Her creations are custom, and have been used in entertainment productions such as music videos or to catch eyes in ads. She is not in the ready-to-wear market.

"I've had some retailers as me about stocking, but you have to be really careful because they are so expensive to make," Winters said.

"They are showpieces; but if people have a couple of thousand dollars to spare here it is."

Fiber-optic dresses cost about $3,000 to make, but the price can rise depending on the design, according to Winters, whose creations are on display online at rainbowwinters.com.

source: interaksyon.com

Accent on the ‘fab’ in Mindanao’s fabrics

Martha Rodriguez, a champion of indigenous, hand-woven fabrics from Mindanao has always believed that traditional weaves could be fashioned into “innovative products that we will use forever.”












Which is why this Congressional Chief-of-Staff juggles her day job along with being a bag designer and social entrepreneur. Rodriguez owns Vesti Bags, where small totes, sexy slings, and sturdy handbags let Mindanaoan fabrics take center stage. Tinalak fabric woven by the T’boli tribe in South Cotabato, Yakan fabric woven by the Yakan tribe in Zamboanga, and Hinabol fabric woven by the Daraghuyan tribe in Bukidnon, among others, are featured in their painstakingly-crafted glory.

“Imagine how many hours are spent weaving it,” she told InterAksyon, sometimes tripping over her words in her eagerness to talk about her products. “Tinalak, for example, can’t be woven in the mornings. It should be done in the evenings. The fabric is so fragile, it can’t be exposed to heat. And how many months does it take to have the fabric woven? Two to three months. The weaving is really part of the culture.”

A culture that she is passionate about. Rodriguez grew up in Cagayan de Oro, where her father is from (her mother is from Surigao City), then came to Manila in her high school years.

“They were really scared of me,” the svelte, stylish 26-year-old said of her classmates then. “They were scared that I would behead them. And until today that’s really the mentality about Mindanao, that it’s not safe to go there. I tell my friends, ‘O, go to Cagayan,’ for them to really see what they’re missing there. Then they’ll say, ‘Ah, we might get kidnapped.’ Okay, it’s a joke, but it’s really degrading.”

“They’ll ask me, ‘Is there Internet in CDO? Is there water? And I think, ‘Why don’t they like Mindanao? Why don’t they like me? What should we bring out of Mindanao that they can appreciate, so that that mentality can be taken out?’”

Her bags might just be part of the answer.

“‘Vesti’ in Russian means ‘messages,’” said Rodriguez. “Vesti is about sending out messages, telling people that each bag comes from different tribes and weavers in Mindanao. The weavers have been doing this all their lives. How come they don’t get the orders, the international recognition, the national recognition that, okay, this is what they’ve been doing?

“It’s about building Mindanao pride through the hand-woven, indigenous fabrics of Mindanao. For me, the heart of Mindanao is in the fabric. It is the essence of the past generations.”

Aside from being able to support the livelihood of the weavers, Rodriguez can take pride in her ability to bring an art form that has existed for generations into today’s image-conscious society.

“I’m really happy that people give me a lot of credit. Like, ‘Hey, I like your bags, it’s the shape, it’s the color, it’s the fabric.’ They’re not just buying the fabric from the weavers, but they also like the idea that it’s a bag that they can use every day. It’s a very fulfilling experience.”

These colorful bags “add oomph to your outfit,” said Rodriguez. “If you can’t think of anything to wear, just get a bag and you’re good to go.”

“Actually now I feel really insecure about my designs. It’s the way I am. There’s always something missing. That’s why I always want to travel more. It’s how I find inspiration for my next design.”

So every now and then she’ll do some research, hop on a plane (“‘Yung promo.”), and prowl the streets in search of a group of weavers she hasn’t discovered yet. “I go to the weavers, buy the fabrics from them, ask them to make pattern, then do (the designs) from there.”

Recently she arrived from Zamboanga with Yakan fabric in hand, woven by a tribe of the same name. The material is made of pineapple and abaca fiber, infused with cotton. The Angela Clutch is the finished product.

The Milan Sling, the Arriane Handbag, and the Grendell Shoulder are made of Hinabol (abaca) fiber from the Daraghuyan tribe in Bukidnon.

Once an intern for lingerie brand Natori in New York, Rodriguez thought she would be based in the United States after college.

“It didn’t feel right. You’ll always go back to your roots.”

• Vesti is available at the Moana Boutique in Rockwell, Antehill Fabric Gallery in Cebu, and My Crafts in Cagayan De Oro. Visit the online shop at www.vesti.ph, www.themall.ph/vesti, or Vesti on Facebook.

source: interaksyon.com