These two dresses, by Montreal designer Ying Gao, aren’t really complete unless someone is staring at them.
Gao works with extreme materials—including things like light-sensitive textiles and photoluminescent thread—that test the bounds of social acceptability. Citing inspiration from Jacques Tati’s Playtime and critic Paul Virilio, Gao’s garments are both slyly critical and lovely, a mix of sharp cultural commentary and truly inspired design.
Her latest pieces, which goes on view at Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art this fall and were featured in a Dezeen video today, deal with how fashion is affected by the public eye—literally. The two cocktail-length dresses are made from a shell of semi-transparent and lightweight “superorganza,” which supports a detailed panel of photoluminescent strings on the front-facing body. Under the strings, a small camera identifies and tracks the movement of faces nearby. And when a set of eyes happen to land on the dress, a series of tiny embedded motors kick into gear, making the photoluminescent strings writhe and curl.
via Gizmodo
