Matching your headgear with your outfit is fine. Having it open and close, at will, by remote control is far better. The engineering firm Smooth Technology designed a sliding-fringed hat for the American actor Billy Porter’s appearance on the Grammy Awards red carpet, in January.

By Ludmilla Intravaia

The red carpets of awards ceremonies are always the occasion of the greatest extravagances. American actor Billy Porter, known for his over-the-top looks, excels at this extravaganza game, as evidenced by his surprising appearance at the Grammy Awards, last January 26, in Los Angeles (see photo below).

As if the turquoise jumpsuit of the designer Scott Studenberg was not enough to shine under the spotlights, Billy Porter chose to wear a matching broad-brimmed hat trimmed with crystal fringes which, activated by stylist Sam Ratelle with a remote control, opened and closed at will in front of the actor’s face. The hat was designed by star milliner Sarah Sokol who posted a video of this group collaboration on Instagram (see below).

The technical device was produced by Smooth Technology, a group of artist-engineers, based in New York who works with lots of American singers (see examples below). In an interview, the day after the Grammys, for the website of the American magazine The Time, Smooth Technology co-founder Dave Sheinkopf explained the genesis of the project : “We were approached by the milliner Sarah Sokol. We worked with her and the stylist Christian Siriano on Janelle Monáe’s outfit for the 2019 Met Gala (see below, AN). Sarah had been asked by Billy’s stylist Sam Ratelle to bring this hat to life, so she asked us to design the mechanical and radio systems.” The engineer continues : “This hat uses a microcontroller that is similar to an Arduino. The custom circuit board runs the motors and handles radio communication with the transmitter. The transmitter and receiver are a system we created and have used on tours for Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, and in any other situations where we need to send data wirelessly and reject a lot of interference (i.e. a stadium full of iPhones). The battery can run for hundreds of cycles.”

In 2019, Smooth Technology designed the winking eye, blinking in a random sequence, on the dress of the American singer Janelle Monáe, during the Met Gala on May 6 (more info in this Boudoir Numérique paper here).

Luminous dress designed for American singer Mariah Carey for her Caution tour in 2019.

Luminous dress designed for Mariah Carey for her All I Want For Christmas Is You tour in 2018 (more info in this Boudoir Numérique paper here).

Light up body suits for American singer Lady Gaga's for her Las Vegas Residency, Enigma, from December 28, 2018 to May 16, 2020.

Light up body suit for American singer Nicki Minaj in hip-hop group Migos’s music video Motorsport, in 2017. See the video below.

Bra with luminous display of the songs lyrics from the Witness tour of the American singer Katy Perry, between 2017 and 2018.

LEDs embedded in American singer Taylor Swift's dress for her 1989 World Tour, in 2015. 

* Smooth Technology website is here, Sarah Sokol here and Sam Ratelle there.