Would You Wear A Haute Couture MIDI Suit?

Dutch fashion designer Maartje Dijkstra created this haute couture wearable DJ controller, DENZIPFADEN:

DENZIPFADEN lets you change the volume of your music and add samples -or anything else that you might do with a MIDI controller- by pulling on the six golden zippers on the suit and a bracelet.

The suit is completely handcrafted out of golden silk and polyester wires and custom made golden zippers.

The project was developed together with DJ and electronic composer Beorn Lebenstedt (Newk), who developed the technology and wrote music for the suit.

Dijkstra says that there are unexpected consequences to embedding DJ MIDI controls into a wearable outfit:

The process of composing music did not change, because you can use any music for this suit, but the performance part became more intimate than we’d ever thought. The crowd usually does not see the DJ using the mixer. It is hidden behind the DJ desk and is overshadowed by a lot of attitude, arms in the air and jumping.

With this suit, the act of mixing can become more expressive. The focus of the performance shifts the audience’s attention towards the technical action of the DJ creating sound effects that would normally go unnoticed.

What do you think of the idea of embedding music controllers into clothing? Would you wear a haute couture MIDI controller like this?

via fashioningtech; images Michele Pauty

18 thoughts on “Would You Wear A Haute Couture MIDI Suit?

  1. Love the idea of having new ways to control electronic music but I definatley dont have the balls to wear it 🙂 Reminds me a bit of that old 70s interview from the late 70s where Kraftwerk said they would have ‘electronic lapels in their suits to control the music’!

  2. I love the idea of this and it looks gorgeous, but like Andy, my cajones shrink at the idea of actually wearing something this..

    I’d like to see a video of this in use!

  3. This actually looks like one of the better designed midid-clothing-objects (no awkward accelerometers).

    Shame it’s a one of a kind suit that looks like a cartoon explosion.

  4. Sure, the day I also wear a tutu, a SpongeBob thong and a red top hat to a VFW meeting. Its the worst of two worlds mashed into a trendmonger’s wet dream. Pass.

  5. I can picture the seed of this idea being some person playing with a zipper and thinking” it sounds like i’m scratching a record” and then…

  6. ooops. heres what I was trying to say:

    I can picture the seed of this idea being some person playing with a zipper and thinking” it sounds like i’m scratching a record” and then…

  7. Interesting. I imagine any set done with this controller takes on an interpretive dance type of feel… reminds me of something I saw Laurie Anderson do years ago…

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