Chelsea klukas of lumen couture was planning to make some standard cloth face masks for friends. The Centers for Disease Control and prevention recommends wearing homemade face coverings to prevent the spread of the virus.

Lumen couture has an entire line of tech-enabled fashion, including dresses, hoodies, and costumes. klukas moved to masks when in-person events were being canceled and sales for other products were slumping.

klukas put together a YouTube tutorial for how to make the components.’that really blew up, to the point where people were asking me for a ready-to-wear mask,’ he said.

Lumen couture donated proceeds from sales of the mask through June. The World Health Organization covid-19 relief fund donated about $ 5,000.

The masks are a completely different demographic from her usual clientele, klukas says. She’s seen more male customers than she expected, most of whom would not describe themselves as fashionistas.

She thinks the Rolex version of masks will help make them a statement wardrobe item. She thinks having masks anyone can wear will help them make them statement item.

The LED display mask has a thin led matrix screen. Wearers can control what it displays via an app. A battery and charging cord are included.

The app offers a microphone input, and some wearers use it to display social distancing messages that might be difficult to hear someone say with their mouth covered.

The trickiest part of designing clothing with LED lighting components is how to conceal the batteries. klukas:’if you want to do something sleek and skintight it’s more of a challenge’.