The Unseen, a London-based design studio, has developed an ink that changes color in reaction to, basically, weather conditions: air pressure, wind, heat, and light.
It might not sound earthshaking, but the company partnered with the very upscale London Selfridges, voted best department store in the world in 2014. The result is limited editions of some very beautiful leather accessories and a scarf, which appear to be black-goes-with-anything until exposed to a change in climate—say, moving from the store’s climate-controlled storage area into a human hand.
The chameleon items include a wallet, backpack, leather bracelet, coin purse and iPhone case. The scarf is particularly remarkable; it reacts differently to different parts of the body.
“The scarf has five formulas hand-painted within each devoréd section,” said Unseen’s founder Lauren Bowker. “We observed how different sections of the body react to specific material and coded each formula to respond to areas like the neck and head, causing deeper colors to flourish around the face.”
You can purchase these and other color-changing items on the Unseen Emporium page, as well as Selfridges. A word to the wise, however; prices are high, not to put too fine a point on it. This is not the kind of thing that will ever see a blue-light special, no matter what shade of blue it is.