WIRED: In the early ’90s the world was under the spell of Hypercolor, a line of clothes that changed hues by reacting to body heat. In a commercial for the garments, you see a couple rolling around in bed, green handprints streaking down the man’s blue shirt where the woman had just groped him. Another shot shows a woman blasting her purple shirt with a hairdryer—as one does—creating a bright pink line down the front.
5 comments:
I don't know if I would ever wear this kind of garment, but this would be something fun to wear on a vacation day to a theme park or a festival thats is taking placing at an outside venue. With the heat or light from the sun, having an article of clothing that is able to change depending on if you're inside or outside would be very cool to have when you can get compliments. So a the larger the crowd, the better it would be to wear this. I remember using ultra violet thread to shown am example of led light effect on the stage. It was a really great material to work with, however it was very slow what showing the effects it wanted and it was also frustrating to not show these effects quickly indoors, so I can also see this being frustrating with this kind of clothing.
I loved the color changing shirts of the 90s, but the sweating was absolutely hilarious and awkward. I had a friend whose shirt was brilliantly designed, though. Instead of the entire fabric being heat sensitive, it was just a cloud. When she wore the shirt, a white cloud would appear, but when off, it was just plain blue. I’m excited for the morphing fabrics to come back, because they are so intriguing and can definitely be used in costume designs for something incredible. I can’t actually think of an example of when that could be useful in a show, but I’m sure someone could think of something. Now, for sunlight activating the fabric, well that’s not that useful for theatre unless it’s outdoor. It’s not quite useful for me either because I don’t go outside, which is very disappointing. I’d love to wear a shirt with a pattern that just magically appears, but it’s probably extremely expensive for this fabric.
This is sooooooooo freaking cool! Like I really want one of these shirts right now! I think that the technology that is used to create one of these shirts could very easily be transferred over to what we do in theatre. Just think about it! How cool would it be if garments were able to move around with no media! There are endless possibilities for things you could do with this. My only concern is that they are a very busy. They are in fact so busy that they could be very distracting to the audience members watching the production. There is already so much going on that you do not want to give the audience a head ache because that would upset them and be bad. All in all, they are really cool and I would totally purchase one to wear casually out and about (hopefully I would look good in it).
I could totally see this process being used for costume effects in theater, especially in modern shows where the use of UV paint and backlights might already be incorporated into the production. If it was well implemented, a design on a costume using this treatment could amaze an audience with a spectacular reveal, like a quick change right in front of the audience’s eyes. This treatment leaves lots of room for great reveals, instantaneous surprises and complete ascetic changes of a costume in a single moment. As a resource for costume designers I can see this kind of treatment being extremely valuable as technology progresses and theater evolves along with it. Fuerzabruta is a production in particular that I think could implement this treatment extremely well with their adrenaline driven, abstract and open performance creating opportunities for exciting shifts and surprises through costumes. Although I think this treatment would be amazing to use on costumes, even if it doesn’t catch on in the theater world I could still see these garments at the very least becoming a fad in the rave and EDM communities where the high energy of dancing, electronic music, and sporadic lights creates ample opportunity for exciting clothing.
I think that this is a really cool concept. It was interesting reading about the adaptation of this type of shirt that was created circa 1990. I can see how the heat predecessor could be a negative element when it comes to summer and humid days where people are more likely to be sweating. However, this new, up and coming prototype seems to be inventive and innovative. I am excited to start seeing these come up in the future. I do hope that they come out with less geometric designs though. I feel like these can be useful and interesting in some theatrical settings. However, they would have to have a different predecessor than heat because theatrical lighting instruments are warm too. Thinking back, this could have been cool with the In A Word costume design for the little boy- Michael. The tree pattern on his shirt could start off invisible then start showing up as the show went on.
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