Alice Moldavskaya
Polar Lights
Class of: 2022
Major: Fashion Design BFA
Medium: Vinyl, plastic, LED lights
Faculty: Karelyn Siegler
Prompt: For the final project in Drawing: Fashion & Form class, the students focused on design principles of a borrowed system such as origami. Based on the octahedron folds, I immediately recognized the mountain folds as a shape of an iceberg or a volcano, which bring the concept of “Water vs Fire”. Driven by forces of nature, the "Polar Lights" bag offers an interactive LED lights strap with reflective layers, providing visibility and safety at night time.
As a young adult in New York City, I acknowledge the importance of being visible to the moving objects at night time. Therefore, looking at reflective fabrics used by construction workers and joggers, I decided to create a shoulder strap bag that combines reflectivity, style and interactive controls of the LED lights. Inspired by origami folds and powers of Water vs Fire, the “Polar Lights” bag connects to one’s phone via Bluetooth and offers countless settings for customizing the LED lights strap with unique blinking patterns, music synchronizing and many other options. Along with a built-in USB power bank, that lasts for 36 hours, voice synchronizing microphone, and collapsible walls, the “Polar Lights” bag reflects as bright as a safety cone and remains waterproof due to its clear vinyl coating.