Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

Never Is the Next New Thing

Light Up With Tron: Legacy, Tiger Morse and Diana Dew

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I was excited to see Tron: Legacy-inspired light sandals by Edmundo Castillo in the New York Times on Sunday.

Edmundo Castillo sandals, courtesy of the New York Times. Click for source.

This year was a banner one for light-up clothing. Singer Katy Perry’s multicolor CuteCircuit gown was my favorite fashion statement at May’s Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Katy Perry at the Costume Institute Ball, courtesy of WWD.

Christina Aguilera’s electric crotch at the MTV Movie Awards in June reminded me of the stripper Electra from Gypsy.

Fabulous Aguilera GIF from Warming Glow. Click for source.

Electra lights up during her strip in the movie adaptation of Gypsy. Click for YouTube clip.

Rapper M.I.A. got a jump on the look in 2009, when she and her backup dancers wore outfits by Enlighted Designs.

Clothes by Enlighted.

All of these electrifying designs made me think of Tiger Morse and Diana Dew, two ’60s designers whose lit-up clothes got brief mentions in Edie: An American Girl — the same Edie Sedgwick biography that enthralled me with its reference to a monkey-fur coat. Movie director Joel Schumacher described Tiger as, “…a society girl from a good family wearing very straight clothes, and all of a sudden the next day she was a speed freak with her hair wired, wearing electric dresses and green glasses.” Richie Berlin, a daughter of the chairman of Hearst and a part of Andy Warhol’s circle, reminisced about Diana Dew:

“Diana Dew, the electric-dress designer for Paraphernalia [a boutique that also sold early Betsey Johnson], had those dresses where the tits would light up; or you could flash the crotch and that would go off. But they weren’t fool-proof, and one night two girls went totally off in Max‘s! I mean, right off. They went BOOM! It’s true.“

That was about the extent of my knowledge about these ladies in the pre-Google days, except for a pair of Morse lounging pajamas that I lusted for at vintage site Enokiworld.

I finally decided to buy this Tiger Morse artifact, only to find someone else beat me to it.

But this year I unexpectedly hit the Diana Dew-Tiger Morse jackpot at gorgeous blogger/designer Stacy Lomman‘s apartment, where I picked up her copy of the book Radical Rags: Fashions of the Sixties by Joel Lobenthal.

Diana Dew wearing her own light-up dress. From Radical Rags. Click to buy book.

According to Lobenthal, Dew was an electrical engineer who flaunted a different hair color every day and created a miniature battery pack that attached to the belt of a dress to create blinking hearts and stars. “They’re hyperdelic transsensory experiences,” she said of her garments to Time Magazine in 1967, the same year The New Yorker wrote about her.  (If your wired mini breaks down, “Please just take it to the nearest radio-TV repair shop,” Dew said.) Lobenthal writes that Dew’s tiny power source was eventually acquired by the U.S. military.

Diana Dew wearing her own electric pants. Courtesy of Radical Rags. Click to buy the book.

As for Joan “Tiger” Morse, Lobenthal calls her “Pop Fashion’s madcap mistress of ceremonies” and “one of the decade’s most bizarre and prescient self-styled fashion freaks.” She ran a boutique out of an apartment and wore rhinestone sunglasses, bird-wing headdresses, brocade boots, silver foil and white lipstick.

Tiger Morse. Courtesy of Radical Rags. Click to buy the book.

Famed fashion illustrator Joe Eula told Lobenthal that Morse arrived at a Metropolitan Museum of Art party “all lit up, strapped with batteries from her shoes to her sunglasses.” Fashion repeats itself! Katy Perry was just picking up where Tiger left off.

Sadly, as Joel Schumacher said, Tiger was heavily into amphetamines. Lobenthal was told this story by another (unnamed) designer:

“An editor was describing to me how when you were sent clothes from a designer’s showroom, you were usually sent the clothes neatly wrapped — period. When Tiger sent something over, you got the dress as well as the misplaced cotton ball or syringe cap.”

According to Radical Rags, by the end of the ’60s, Morse was waiting tables at hot spot Max’s Kansas City and liquidating her possessions to raise money, though she kept her antique clothing, silk-screened vinyl dresses and “prototype white sequin electric dress.” She died of an overdose of sleeping pills in 1972.  (Lobenthal doesn’t say what happened to Diana Dew so if anyone knows, holla at me.)

One of the Morse quotes in Radical Rags reminds me of my own jewelry designs. Morse said, “I’m making dresses that make noises, I’m making dresses that whisper, dresses that smell.” I bet she would have liked my jewelry that unscrews, swivels and whistles. Maybe I need to do some electrified jewelry next. Until I figure that out, I’d happily settle for wearing this fuzzy, glowing coat. Hell, I’ll take the bra too.

Coat is $550 on Etsy. Click to buy it for me. Thanks in advance.

UPDATED TO ADD: Thanks for reader Fritinancy for pointing out today’s post about illuminated clothing over at Mental Floss. Great minds think alike!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I love this post!! Who knew there were so many options out there for light up clothing! When all else fails, freon sticks/necklaces from the dollar store!! hmm.. glow stick earrings..probably and idea I shouldn’t be giving away for free lol.

  6. I like the idea of clothes that light up – very handy on dark winter mornings. Maybe I’ll buy Mr TNMA some for Christmas then he won’t wake me up with his dawn crashing around!

  9. I’m going to see Tron in Imax 3d tonight, so clearly this makes me even more excited..I love your posts, how you string these different ideas together and introduce us to these amazing designers

  12. I love these posts of yours, Wendy–they’re informative and thorough and I always walk away with a broader view of fashion history. 🙂

  17. This is a dreamy post Miss Wendy, I actually read parts of it twice, You might be surprised to learn that I *love* the electronic or otherwise lit-up clothing, it is loads of fun.

    Reading about enokiworld brings back memories, we both probably stumbled upon it about the same time, back (as you point out) before there was a Google or other cool ways to search for vintage clothing and accessories!

    Thank you for sharing such a wealth of information and images!
    tp

  18. let it glow, let it glow, let it glow.
    (couldn’t help myself)
    But those wedges. wow. so sleek and gorgeous and I’d wear them in a heart beat. along with Diana Dew’s dress.

  21. This post made me smile. I really want those electric pants for yoga class. It would intimidate the hell out of the other yogis. But it might be really dangerous. Not sure yet.

  24. An afterthought: Tiger Morse had a wonderful boutique on Madison Avenue between 72nd and 73rd Street in the mid-1960’s. There were many clear acrylic drawer cases of pins with all kinds of classic 60’s statements of all kinds, many fun, politically mischievous or erotic.

    She had trendy clothes, bold tiger stripes in the decor, lots of mod design stuff in plastic, vinyl, mylar, mirrored walls, fluorescent colors, flamboyant and playful, quite like what Fiorucci’s style became.

    More pics of Diana Dew at work:
    http://www.robinsonarchive.com/photograph-search-results.asp?pc=12&pages=2&page=1&subject=69

    http://www.zazzle.com/60s+buttons

  26. Thank for giving my amazingly brilliant and talented mother some proper reference…she was way ahead of her time. If no one seems to know what happened to Diana Dew, it was because she turned her focus to hydroponic sprout farming and raising her son (moi :). I am continuing her foray into light design and fashion in my own way, utilizing ideas and equipment that she entrusted to me upon her passing in February 2008. If anyone is interested in knowing more I can be reached on FB.
    Jesse Dew
    PS Nice photos of my mother, you should see some of the pictures I saved from her time at Vogue!!!

    • Jesse, I tried to find you on Facebook, but there are a bunch of Jesse Drews. Your mom was a friend of mine many years ago in the 60’s. We went to the University of Florida together and shared a house one very fine summer in Palo Alto, CA. We lost touch over the years, both of us wandering about too much I guess. She was one of a kind. I’ve never met anyone quite like her since. You were a lucky guy to have her for your mom. I’m so sorry to hear that she’s no longer with us. Would love to hear from you if you get this.

    • oops, I did put Jesse Drew instead of Dew on Facebook, but I tried your real name and there was only one and I didn’t think it was you.