armskirt

Who knew awesome fashion could be so functional!

Last year, Kiyoyuki Amano set the internet on fire with his Hikaru Skirt, which used LEDs to light up the wearer’s zettai ryoiki, or “absolute territory,” the name of the skin visible between knee-high socks a skirt. The skirts delivered a delightfully futuristic take on fashion that appealed to everyone from Akihabara idols to anyone who just really likes LEDs.

And now he’s back with a new creation that kicks the futurism up a few notches!

▼ Introducing the Arm Skirt!

While the name is a bit obvious, we suppose, the Arm Skirt is certainly the kind of fashion breakthrough that proves Doctor Octopus was, indeed, a trendsetter. (Not that there was ever any question about Spider-man villain’s position as fashion leader. Just look at his haircut for proof!)

In addition to creating the Hikaru Skirt, Amano is also the creative director of Kayac, a “fun-loving” technology company, so if anyone was going to create robot skirt arms, he’d be the guy to do it! And while robotic arms poking out of a skirt are usually more associated with body horror, we have to admit Arm Skirt does look like a blast to wear.

▼ It can even help you stay hydrated this summer!

This time, it looks like Amano had some help from Amauchi Industries and bloommakeLab in the development of the Arm Skirt. And it’s clear they put a lot of work into this project — the arms have a highly polished look and move fairly smoothly. Sadly, they are apparently remote-controlled — the wearer activates preprogrammed movements with the controller — and not actually plugged directly into the user’s brain as we’d initially hoped. It’s both disappointing and understandable. We’re not sure we’d be willing to get brain surgery just to control a robot arm…

▼ Oh, who are we kidding, we’d definitely get that surgery!

Sadly, there’s no indication the Arm Skirt is actually going to go into production — limited or otherwise — so if you want your own Arm Skirt, you’ll probably have to make it yourself.

Of course, a project of this size would probably require a lot of work, but this would be the best smartphone holder/zattai ryoiki protector anyone could wish for!

On the other hand, if you’re just not in the mood to spend a year working on robot arms, you can still get your high-tech culture fix by checking out this stunning video of drones covered in LEDs dancing to tsugaru-jamisen music in front of Mt. Fuji. Sadly, we still don’t have drones designed to protect our precious zettai ryoiki, but maybe that’ll be Amano’s project for next year!

Sources: Net Lab, Kayac, Instagram/armskirt
Featured image: Instagram/armskirt