Costume made of fibre optics fabric changes colour

London-based designer Amy Rainbow Winters in a Fashion Ware area at the Consumer Electronics Show here on Wednesday displayed a costume she made of fabric with fibre optics woven in and sensors in the sleeves. Light travelled through the cloth, which glowed blue. With a touch of a sleeve, the colour changed.

The techno-chic with a few thousand dollars to spare can sport outfits that can change colour on a whim. If you feel like having a purple, the dress will be purple. If you later feel like having red, you have red. You just look at the sleeve and decide what colour you want. Winters said

Winters designs fabric and clothes, then collaborates with technologists to make 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 colours 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 fibre-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.

Winters said that she had some retailers asking her about stocking, but you have to be really careful because they are so expensive to make. However, they are showpieces; but if people have a couple of thousand dollars to spare.

According to Winters, the Fibre-optic dresses cost about $3,000 to make, but the price can rise depending on the design. To view the new creations by Winter you can visit online at rainbowwinters.com.