This NeoPixel LED Skirt Will Brighten Up Your Wardrobe

We don’t often cover fashion here, because most of us are geeks with the fashion sense of Doug Funnie. But there are many makers in the community who can do some amazing things with a bolt of fabric. We usually notice that in the form of cosplay, but it certainly isn’t limited to performative fashion. Even everyday clothes can be enhanced with a bit of electronic wizardry to create eye-catching pieces. One tried and true way to achieve that is with blinky LEDs, as proven by makeTVee’s beautiful NeoPixel LED Skirt.

When the LEDs are off, this looks just like any other skirt — stylish but simple. The hem sits just above the knee, making it suitable for everyday outfits. makeTVee is quick to point out that they didn’t sew the skirt themselves. The pattern construction and sewing were handled by a pro. But the LEDs are what make the skirt come to life, and those were all the work of makeTVee. Underneath the fabric on the front of the skirt there are several vertical LED strips that shine through the relatively thin material. Those strips are attached to a slip underneath the outer fabric. That fabric has a subtle thread pattern that becomes visible when the LEDs are on. The LEDs light up in a cool animated effects that react to the wearer’s movement.

This skirt has six strips of Adafruit NeoPixels, each of which contains 20 individual LEDs for a total of 120 LEDs across the skirt. Those are all on the front of the skirt for practical reasons, such as to avoid discomfort when sitting. The NeoPixels are controlled by an Adafruit QT Py, which is a tiny little development board built around a Microchip SAM D21 microcontroller. Power comes from a 5000mAh USB battery pack and an LSM6DSO32 accelerometer/gyroscope board is used to detect the wearer’s movements. While the QT PY can run Adafruit’s CircuitPython, makeTVee programmed the various LED effects using the Arduino IDE. Those effects are based on ArminiusM’s NeoPixel library, which, in turn, takes advantage of the FastLED library. The user can choose between a basic “meteor rain” effect, a fire effect, or a bouncing balls effect that reacts to motion. If you’re interested in adding some avant-garde lighting to your wardrobe, this skirt should serve as some great inspiration.