Giant glowing fabric made into shirtsleeve display

A 6-metre long piece of fabric woven from conductive polymer strands and luminescent fibres is the largest flexible textile display ever made. The material, which can be folded, bent, stretched and even withstands 100 cycles in the washing machine, could allow wearers to read messages or driving instruction off their sleeve.

Traditional display technologies aren’t suitable for clothing – light-emitting diodes are too rigid and organic thin film fibres are too fragile. There are more flexible and robust devices such as optical fibres or polymer light-emitting electrochemical cells, but they often show only a single pattern and don’t work as dynamic displays.