These LED eyelashes are future fashion

 

Sometimes you see a product and you’re like “Wow, that’s so futuristic.” Then you remember you’re living in 2017, 20 years after the date that a sentient AI wiped out most of humanity in the original Terminator movie, and you think: “Huh, maybe we’re living in the future already.” So it is with these amazing LED eyelashes.

They’re called f.lashes, and they’re the creation of designer Tien Pham, who first showed them off at Maker Faire earlier this year. Encouraged by the reaction he received, Pham has now launched a Kickstarter to make his wearable electronics into a commercial product, and has already attracted more than double his $40,000 target.

F.lashes are tiny strips of LEDs that you stick to your eyelids with lash adhesive. There’s an annoying, bulky controller and a connecting wire you have to hide somewhere (best bet: in your hair), but once that’s in place, the effect is amazing. The f.lashes come in seven different colors, and light up in various patterns in response to your movements.

It’s a neat product, but not quite ready for the mainstream. (That wire is going to annoy too many people.) Expect to see it at clubs and festivals first, places where taking a little more time to get dressed up is par for the course. Then, when future iterations drop the wire, we hope they’ll go mainstream. Then, in another 20 years time, they’ll be retro