Fashion

Dani Read Designed "Blade Runner"-Inspired Lingerie

By Kelly Bourdet

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Dani Read designs elegant lingerie, loungewear, and toys for the future. After working for some of the most exciting lingerie brands in the business, she launched her own line, FYI, in 2010. Since then she’s been designing each season’s collection around a female archetype. For spring/summer 2013, she’s been inspired by the female androids of science fiction, their androgyny, intelligence, and super-human sexuality.

In “The Replicant” Dani draws from sci-fi staples like Blade Runner and the fiction of Philip K. Dick and David Mitchell. Each piece in the collection has been named after a science fiction character. In a culture where technology can sometimes undermine emotional intimacy—all that texting and Facebook stalking doesn’t always facilitate real, human connection—Dani hopes that her lingerie will encourage partners to interact. She incorporates bondage elements and is researching future technology where a garment’s fabric will change color with touch in an effort to make the function of beautiful lingerie more than just its removal. I talked with Dani about her aesthetic and her hopes for fashion’s future. She gave Motherboard a first look at the video lookbook for “The Replicant,” and chatted with me about the future of robo-inspired undergarments.