it's all been done before ...
even lighted clothes - seriously!
I get a lot of messages from people who are excited to discover my lighted clothing business online, since they've already been experimenting with their own versions of lights + clothes, or they've been dreaming of this for years, but hadn't managed to put the parts together yet. There are many people pursuing these ideas, and we're a rapidly growing community. Personally, I think that decorative lights on clothes are an extension of the long tradition of using shiny sparkly things like sequins, rhinestones, and glitter on clothes. As technology permits us to add even brighter trims that emit light, it seems reasonable that even more people will try this combination.
Occasionally, I'll get letters from people who are upset because they thought their ideas for lighted clothing were completely original. For the record, I'd like to say that I did not "invent" lighted clothing, and I don't think it makes sense to attribute this entire field to a single person. I've spent nearly a decade developing my craft (which I hope is worth something), but I was just a kid when the earliest lighted clothing patents were issued in the US, back in the 1970s. And, historically, the earliest evidence of lights in clothes (or a desire for them, at least) that I've been able to find is this:
p. 72, figure entitled "Electric jewels, 1881", from Wolfgang Schivelbusch, "Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century".
The text doesn't explain the image, other than saying that people of that time were fascinated with new uses of electricity. And yes, the year was 1881. 1881!
do you believe me now?
I get a lot of messages from people who are excited to discover my lighted clothing business online, since they've already been experimenting with their own versions of lights + clothes, or they've been dreaming of this for years, but hadn't managed to put the parts together yet. There are many people pursuing these ideas, and we're a rapidly growing community. Personally, I think that decorative lights on clothes are an extension of the long tradition of using shiny sparkly things like sequins, rhinestones, and glitter on clothes. As technology permits us to add even brighter trims that emit light, it seems reasonable that even more people will try this combination.
Occasionally, I'll get letters from people who are upset because they thought their ideas for lighted clothing were completely original. For the record, I'd like to say that I did not "invent" lighted clothing, and I don't think it makes sense to attribute this entire field to a single person. I've spent nearly a decade developing my craft (which I hope is worth something), but I was just a kid when the earliest lighted clothing patents were issued in the US, back in the 1970s. And, historically, the earliest evidence of lights in clothes (or a desire for them, at least) that I've been able to find is this:
p. 72, figure entitled "Electric jewels, 1881", from Wolfgang Schivelbusch, "Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century".
The text doesn't explain the image, other than saying that people of that time were fascinated with new uses of electricity. And yes, the year was 1881. 1881!
do you believe me now?
posted by Janet Hansen at 8:22 PM
1 Comments:
I've seen that picture of electric jewels-- it was in a 19th century book on magic tricks and stage effects that I read as a child. Basically there were electric gems for performer's clothing and in stage prop jewels-- I can't recall the name of the opera with the "jewel song"-- but there were several suggestions of how these might be used. Anyway, cool stuff!
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