• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, November 6, 2012

There’s something about social media that makes people want to mash it up with everything, and that includes clothing.

In the most recent sartorial application of social media, “fashion technology” house CuteCircuit has created a dress containing 2,000 LED lights which can display Twitter messages received via wireless Internet. The dress was commissioned by EE, a British 4G mobile network, and modeled at an event in London last week by Nicole Scherzinger, the former lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, who is currently a judge on the British version of X-Factor.

Twitter users just had to add the hashtag #tweetthedress to have their message displayed on Scherzinger’s eye-catching apparel. Scherzinger seemed to have no problem, and in fact appeared rather pleased, with the idea that Twitter messages would be displayed “right across my ‘area’ down there!” The dress can be recharged via USB.

As noted, this isn’t the first time fashion and social media have been mated to produce sheer weirdness. Last month I wrote about an inflatable vest that gives you a “hug” every time someone clicks “Like” on your Facebook profile. Designed by MIT researchers Andy Payne and Phil Seaton and artist Melissa Kit Chow, the “Like-A-Hug” vest “inflates when friends ‘Like’ a photo, video, or status update on the wearer's wall, thereby allowing us to feel the warmth, encouragement, support, or love that we feel when we receive hugs. Hugs can also be sent back to the original sender by squeezing the vest and deflating it.”