Whenever my family comes to visit me I use it as an excuse to visit all the tourist attractions and cultural institutions that make Chicago one of the world’s greatest cities. This Thanksgiving I took my mom and my brother Matt to the Museum of Science Industry, the biggest science museum in the Western hemisphere. All of us are obsessed with severe weather; living on the border between Arkansas and Oklahoma – in the heart of Tornado Alley – tends to breed a fascination with nature’s fury.

After visiting the storm exhibit, which includes a live lightning demonstration and a mini-tornado, we wandered into Fast Forward: Inventing the Future. One of the centerpieces of the exhibit was the Galaxy Dress above. I took two photos, one with a flash and one without, and then created a gif to better illustrate the design. Although a lot of futuristic fashion can be gimmicky, I thought this was a really cool exploration by CuteCircuit designers Ryan Genz and Francesca Rosella on how light might be integrated into garments in the future. This is also the world’s largest wearable display (which is kind of a gimmick, but this looks so cool I’m willing to ignore it). The dress was sewn by hand using organza and chiffon. In addition to the thousands of LED lights carefully woven into the fabrics, around 4,400 Swarovski crystals were beaded onto the garment as well. The secret science nerd in me is totally geeking out on this dress.

And for those of you rolling your eyes, one of high fashion’s darlings has experimented at integrating light into his dresses too: