Visual Sound, an Idea with Serious Haute-Couture Potential

What could one expect from two designers who call themselves LOWfat and FULLfat? Nothing but one of the most interesting ideas to be linked with haute-couture, we'd say. Designer duo formed by Patrick Li and Ian Gallais, and going by the name Sounds.Butter, has succeeded to merge two fields that were miles apart, sound and clothing design. Their creation is like nothing you've seen before, working in a most fascinating way.

The Fats (we hope they don't mind calling them so) were looking for a physical way to visualize sound, but they wanted something different from what was already to be found.

The main goal was to have this visual representation of sound remain in a permanent form, unlike that of VU-meters, oscilloscopes and many other similar devices. Even more, the two designers wanted a palpable object carrying further the existence of the sound, and this is how they thought of mixing a sewing machine with sound technology, creating a most alluring prototype – the Visual Sound.

The Visual Sound is a sewing machine that sews accordingly to the sound input it gets. Basically, you get a physical sewn waveform attached to the desired cloth, in stereo. Now, while this amazing tool is still a prototype, and no one knows whether it will ever get to see a sibling, not to mention enter mass production, a neat idea can’t but pop in certain minds: how cool would it be if some clothes had matching designs made with the Visual Sound playing certain music?

You don't have to be an inventor or a sound engineer to figure out that the physical waveform of a Vivaldi song would look different when compared with a Dire Straits track. Hence, the unlimited cool factor of having your fave songs or choruses sewn to your clothes! And that would truly be a nifty piece of clothing design art. Imagine going to a store and asking for some ZZ Top blankets, the "Gimme All your Lovin' ones, please!" All this would be possible with the Visual Sound.

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