It’s beautiful, intricate and elegantly simple. But this lace collar is also seriously flash.
Called Political Lace and created by Melissa Coleman, a software engineer-cum-media design artist based in London, the accessory is fitted with an LED light that blinks every seven and a half minutes – the frequency at which young women die unnecessarily during childbirth.
The idea, she says, is not unlike a charity wristband, with the dynamic LED drawing attention to the tragedies as it lights up for each death. Recently on show at La Gaîté Lyrique in Paris, Political Lace isn’t Coleman’s only foray into fusing tech with fashion. Currently appearing at the Coded Couture exhibition at the Pratt Manhattan gallery in New York, which runs until April, is Holy Dress – a striking ironwork bodice that shocks the wearer should the built-in lie detector sense they’re fibbing.
At the heart of Coleman’s work is the concept of tying coding knowledge to creative outlets: “I like the idea of people not just being consumers of technology but creators. I hope that by making these conceptual pieces it helps people think about what the future could be,” she says.
