Lumen Couture donated proceeds from the sales of its LED masks through June to the World Health Organization COVID-19 relief fund. This amounted to about $5,000.
Chelsea Klukas of Lumen Couture planned to make some standard cloth face masks for friends. This was at the start of the pandemic as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended wearing face coverings.
The Couture has an entire line of tech-enabled fashion, including dresses, hoodies, and costumes. Klukas shifted to making masks when in-person events were being canceled and sales for other products were slumping. The fashion designer decided to add the tech to make the face masks a little more fun.
She said she had the components around, so she put together a DIY YouTube tutorial on how to make them. That really blew up, to the point where people were asking her for a ready-to-wear mask, she said.
Klukas said that she didn’t want to appear to be trying to profit from the pandemic. So, Lumen Couture donated the proceeds from sales of the mask to the WHO COVID-19 relief fund.
The buyers of the masks are a completely different demographic from her usual clientele. Moreover, she has seen more male customers than she expected, most of whom would not describe themselves as fashionistas.
She said having masks anyone can wear will help make them a statement wardrobe item. They are seeing the introduction of mask-wearing as a new form of expression, she said.
Other fashion designers are picking up on this as well. They will start to see like the Rolex version of masks, she added.
WHO COVID-19: LED Display Masks, Best-selling Item Donations
Klukas’ LED Display mask has a thin LED matrix screen. Wearers can control what it displays such as drawings, custom text, and even voice inputs via an app.
The fabric is breathable both above and below the screen. One can remove the tech components and then wash the mask, or wear it as a regular mask. A battery and a charging cord are within the package.
The app offers a microphone input. Some use it to display social distancing messages like “stand back” or “6 feet”. They might be difficult to hear someone say with their mouth covered.
Klukas said the trickiest part of designing clothing with LED lighting components is where and how to conceal the batteries. For example, there are a few tricks where you can hide in a dress with a fluffy skirt, she said. But if you want to do something sleek and skintight, it’s more of a challenge, she added.
These masks have been her best-selling item by far. They are made of dual-layer cotton and mesh material with an LED Flex Panel, and cost USD95 (RM404) each. Its June sales proceeds of over $4500 (RM19,000) have been donated to the WHO COVID-19 relief fund.
But the designer says she can’t wait to get back to in-person shows. Those are where people can touch and experience the LED-enhanced clothing in person.
Especially, with the more adventurous pieces, people will come up close to see the magic. It is hard to show that through video, she said.
The person wearing the fashion, she said, is part of the story. It doesn’t convey the story as well, on a flat screen, she added.
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