by Dot Cannon
(Photo courtesy of Gyan Penrose-Kafka, and used with permission.)
Enlighted President and Chief Fashion Engineer Janet Hansen’s designs have a tendency to make people light up.
Janet incorporates LED and EL lights into her unique stage costumes, jackets, boots, wedding dresses–and anything else that anyone can imagine. Rihanna, Katy Perry and Kasey Musgraves have all worn her customized light-up creations onstage–as have the band Daft Punk, in their first televised appearance in the 2008 Grammys.
But Janet, who founded her Encinitas-based business, Enlighted, fifteen years ago in order to create her “dream job”, doesn’t just design for rock stars. Her website says she can install lights in just about any garment–and she’s currently at work on a line of ready-to-wear items, in addition to taking custom orders. And in response to all the questions she receives, about how she lights up clothing, she has also written some online tutorials.
Janet talked about her background, shared the story of creating her small business and designing for artists including Daft Punk and the Radio City Rockettes, and talked about the direction she would like to take, as an artist, in the future.
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