MakeFashion FashionTech Showcase: Tech Tie

By Chelsea Klukas, Founder — Lumen Couture

Customizable designs and patterns make this future fashion accessory versatile for any occasion.

Photos by Kelly Hofer, Model: Kyle Nylund.

“Tech Tie” is a MakeFashion wearable accessory created by Jeff de Boer, Grant McKee and Shannon Hoover. This "smart tie" includes 16 OLED screens, using similar technology found in cell phone displays.

The tie features a futuristic styling straight out of science fiction, and is programmable to change patterns and designs.

The tech tie team is based in Calgary, Alberta. Shannon Hoover is the chief technologist and Co-Founder of MakeFashion. Jeff de Boer is a Calgary-based multi-media artist with an international reputation for producing some of the world’s most original and well-crafted works of art. Grant McKee is an electronic engineering technologist.

The next version of the tie will have the ability to store information and can be programmed to take photos, detect movement, and respond to changes in environment.

About the Author: Chelsea Klukas is an award-winning interdisciplinary technology artist and design leader. She has founded two companies exploring the intersection of fashion and technology (Lumen Couture and MakeFashion) and was recently granted her Doctorate of Fine Arts (h.c.) in 2019. Her Lumen Couture projector hat, a hat that includes real-time projection mapping and visual inputs to display video on a dress, has gained international attention as the first of its kind. She is an advocate for diversity and women in tech.

Lumen Couture is fashion that illuminates for unexpected elegance and drama. The designs are informed by the international fashiontech shows hosted by MakeFashion, an organization that introduces youth to STEM through hands-on fashion technology workshops.