Marlena detest got just about everything she wanted in life except for a dress that would light up even though she so dearly wanted it for a major appearance in las vegas. Term in one. Early. Bird. With. Her. Q. Is of course the star big stars like marlena were like fixed stars in the night sky a shining light in a dark tunnel. And climbing trees a small figure moved closer but it was like some kind of movie effect where you couldnt see that she was actually moving and then on stage she said in a breathy voice on hey boys able are. My limited precisely how to seduce a crowd in the one nine hundred fifty s. She began her second career as an entertainer in las vegas her shows in the congo room at the sahara hotel were a smash hit even though she was on stage for just twenty minutes a night. With marlena everything was perfect every gesture the way she positioned her fingers. She was an ultra glamorous figure. But it was more than that she was radiant like a supernova that suddenly appeared that is her legacy its like mice in porcelain or ten carat cut diamond. And its but. Some of the more breathtaking costume designs are stored here at the marlena detention archive in berlin. Was now in her early fiftys her hollywood glory days were over but she still long to play to an audience in one nine hundred fifty three the sahara hotel made her an offer she couldnt refuse thirty thousand dollars a week for three weeks the most lucrative contract in las vegas and more than she had ever earned before and return plan to offer her audience something really special. Shed set new performance standards maximum glamour and minimal costumes. Everyone was happy. The headline reads london doesnt want to see this this photo underscores the fact that this costume was intended to convey the impression of unabashed nudity so this piece was a reaction to her one nine hundred fifty three shows in las vegas before the london show in one nine hundred fifty four the german press was sharply critical. They even referred to her as a grandmother and she didnt like that at all. But lena was a secretive person and disciplined as well she tried to circumvent the process of aging to break the power of aging action by anyone who told us they got in and she wasnt a great singer and she knew it so she used racy customs to enhance her performances. She was past fifty and was wearing these nearly nude outfits. That was really rather provocative thats who. The designer behind those costumes was john we in the one nine hundred fifty four letter to him i adore you. Want is on the way to work for her but he was under exclusive contract with columbia pictures still she managed to work out a deal with the studio john louise designs were legendary Rita Hayworth in the one nine hundred forty six film gilda. Wore the gallon worn by Marilyn Monroe and in one nine hundred sixty two Birthday Celebration for president john f. Kennedy. Money the had to cut my linen had very clear ideas and she knew that john we understood her it was Pretty Amazing as she wasnt easy to work with she knew exactly what she wanted her performance to look like and thats about as well i would have liked to have met my lena but as an artist i think she made life extremely difficult for does. Miners and others who work with her or design that its just. A. Bunch on the way made each fish part of the Creative Process and together they design costumes that made her an icon. Would provide the designer with some preliminary concepts like this one for a full length coat made of swan down. Vendi to propose a project that was close to her heart a custom that would light up she wrote about it to john louis in great detail. December six nine hundred fifty eight. Dearest joan i could have shown you what i want on that old sketch that you made with the white flowers. The pink sketch is actually closer to what i want but how can we hide the cable and the light bulbs under the flop petals on the dress. And the guns us to the problem i think the coat will get in the way perhaps we could use an office cat and the garlands would reach up to the blouse. As in mind as she wanted something that would glittering glow from top to bottom. As the sets but now that ive read her instructions again its very hard to imagine a forest from that. Think of the technology back then the electrical cables and the light bulbs and the bold fittings she definitely have to carry around a lot of stuff im going to go up and thats all stuff. But perhaps todays technology could be used to create such a costume. For lyn designer lisa lange is the founder and c. E. O. Of electro quit tour a company that creates high tech fashion. Playing also organizes the fashion tech awards in berlin. The age of Wearable Technology has begun at laying studio her team creates designs that combine contemporary fashion and smart devices. Were. Laying loves a challenge and as a fan of marlena detach she agreed to create a fashion tech dress fit for the diva. The spot of yes look this was my first jacket with lights weve come away since then the l. E. D. S. Were a little bigger then that was three years ago but this jacket was already interactive then it has its own sim card so its even got its own phone number you can send a text and alter the sequence. The technology has become more sophisticated in distressed design by on your dog on the l. E. D. S. Are simply sewn into the fabric. The most. Important thing is the effect weve got to find a way to make the dress light up. Almost sixty years after melina d. T. H. Came up with the idea lees and started working out a high tech costume that might meet the star specifications. For inspiration they visit the archive of the marlena de trash collection in berlin. If. It was on the district heres a very unusual item from columbia studios we have to handle it quite carefully. Melinda had a fairly short torso and very long legs she was about one meter sixty seven tall or one sixty eight. Centimeter. Looks different. And i think its. Hips a bigger. Source yeah yeah this shape is. Very strong on the waist is super small. Always stood with a bit of a hollow back leaning back a little. Some of the fabric was removed so that the length would work. On the back side very flat and yeah. This is the wind. Its composed of many layers of extremely sheer. Fabric. When she worked she used a wind machine machine. To visit his stuff on and some of the material would be blown against her body and some would be blown behind her back when that happened she looked like a greek goddess. Good to. All yet this was on the line to talk to always underline those things that she considered important here as she wanted to know for example whether a tight skirt would cause problems. Of course there wasnt any spandex back then maybe double sofla stuff schools. This is what the souffle weve looks like the work threads dont go all the way through their twisted and secured by a weft insertion. Is a bit more flexible than say she fun but you really cant stretch it so the material would tear if shed bend over too far for a boy or raise an arm too high and this is going. To do visit her performances were quite static shed just stand there and sing in close like this she could move much. As you could only do that by hand thats all hand crafted and yes climbing up thinner and thinner to possums as the material became more transparent as it rose upwards on. There was no embroidery over the bust it started from that point downwards. So it was as it was supposed to create a new look with no visible seams or anything lets say and send it to stone you can see that there was embroidery covering the bottom parts of the bus to the. Not the top part. Which ticket. To must because if you are a stage performer you have to make yourself larger than life thats what makes you a star some star. These are swarovski crystals and here are some of the embroidery samples. Marlena and the seamstresses used to send lots of samples back and forth marlena would inspect them and suggest improvements. But even feathery costumes like this with thousands of sequence were not enough for dietrich she demanded more illumination for maximum visual impact. In q. Four. Oh ive got goosebumps. Looks like as if its yeah right because it was for. This time she wanted to work with light and play around with the. Light was quite important to her for example the way her face was lit it all makes sense. With. The noise from. The Stage Lighting planes that we have here in the collection were very sophisticated. They outlined the various. To be achieved with each song and each costume. With a smile think its yours theres a list of things to pay particular attention to and things to avoid. And which song went with which lighting concept. The most. Likely that marilyn surrounded herself with the best staff possible so its still. Here are some color filter tests everything was worked out in advance from the very first second of the show to the very last its something thats. So lets say quick is of its not true that. She was trying to reinvent herself to create a new stage character and so she instinctively pushed the limits she says in effect. Ill just go out there with the lights on for the its up commandant wouldnt. Just. Its a flower dress and theres a lot of details. That are that we thought about while designing and we decided to go for a combination like that inspiration actually comes a bit from this era but we will make a very modern because i think thats why its she would want us well and now that we have the technology to make actually what she was us or the mindset is like my lena is our customer you know but what would she want and what would we do in two thousand and seventeen of course is the show piece its a piece for h. So it has it can go a little bit here a z and the death of the devil course that also means were going to use all of the technology which we have in two thousand and seventeen which didnt exist nine hundred fifty eight and she would have one that i think she would have had so much fun with the laser cut and if interest to be in there it will be also covered its photos and programmed by human all so the interest will be also interactive. Dont worry about the technical side on like the electrical contact with my forte the cable will run to a small place on the sole of my shoe the contact plate on the stage floor will be powered from the mains. To the very good third to the once toast Something Big wall and glowing. That way i can turn the lighting on and off at will this will puzzle people and thats good they wont know if they imagine the lights or not. Shes going to step onto this kind of metal plate and shes going to short the secrets are going to look closer and this is good thats her idea but thats incredibly dangerous this is things. Like this its a really. Low they literally. There has to be like. Robots because we would like to ensure that we are now working on the base dress that. We will create. And this will be the plaster on i os there are going to work on her not them brighter. This was Space Company foster who has been producing top quality embroidered material for the worlds leading fashion houses since one thousand nine hundred four. These days they also weave conductive thread and l. E. D. S. Into the delicate material to produce the same effect that marlena detail to achieve. Oh. This looks. Ok look. This is. What you. Offer us to think you. Yanks think. And. Then also dont scream ask do you know this. If. Youre not. You can you see how thick no. Can save a lot of problems they have back then like huge stress to hold all the flowers they need embroidery because without it it would look cheap but if there was some dry there is cooked too heavy and now this we can make kind of. Pretty much transparent and dress with embroideries with the embroidery. So theres actually a perfect solution for what she was asking. For in the year fifty eight. Asian countries and just kids will. Start. To think its also because from i think tricity engineering point there is things to a perfect hives for the cables. And shes spent a lot of time educating us how far to the crust. It will be easy to run the cable along the fast and. The large flowers present a problem i know but the small ones look its. Because its really its really difficult to to understand what kind of style of flowers she wants because i think it too small to like to see. Now its time to get to work on the details hundreds of flowers will be produced with a three d. Printer and a laser cutter and also by hand. We cant use the plastic flowers which come with wiring. Some of them not beautiful but the light bulbs in the middle are too obvious. About the z. Book he says she was good at figuring out worst Case Scenarios as. We as designers always have to consider both the worst and best Case Scenarios and the. Same idea can look great. Or off. The lights will work only if they replace the embroidery and the sparkle but they have to be hidden. We need lots of flowers and lights. A border alone would look like a christmas tree. Im sending you flowers from italy. I can get about it we need also in other colors. Yeah. Its true as to where you will have flowers with lights. But the light will be hidden so you will not know where the light is coming from if everything is sparkling theyll take a while to work out where the glow is coming from. To me rather you see. Early day light. To look then. Before you see the city. Kids cause my kid right now im marking the line well well probably put the organza. If we going to put more flowers and things on this delicate material were going to have to reinforce it. Because it is the cutter stuff and the sand understood so. You. Dont need to. Know my way. With my heart. And there will always. Be done box anyone who takes on the task of designing costumes that would be worthy of my lane a day treasury has to realize that she was one of a conference coming. I think its. The church had a good laugh over this Playboy Magazine cover she wrote often imitated never equals. Lisa laying on your dog and their team have worked for weeks on this project and now theyve made my lane at each her stream a reality this costume is light as a feather and transparent. And the lights keep time with the music. Look. Cluelessly. Chani wants to see. A light to look lets. See if. This is the dawn of a new age of fashion and marlena teacher saw it coming six decades ago oh my old cluelessly. Joe made my soup. But again i love. The only. Time a poll. Was done. To my. Heart. And come to see me. Trying to change my ways. I love that little. Bowl but please dont. You told me you those. That make you. Feel. Locks your. Clothes but. The bathroom never gets enough to last. The bag the highlights it was the mess the book. The book every journey begins with the first step and everything reaches the first word. To clear the business of. The book and. Its simple. Stuff. Course. Eco speak german maybe. Its all about the moments that lie before. Its all about the stories inside. Its all about George Chance to discover the world from different perspectives. Join us and be inspired by distinctive instagram or others at g. W. Stories new topics each week on instagram. D w true diversity. Where the world of science is at home in many languages. On a lot of programming. Our innovations magazine for in asia the us from every week and always looking to the future on d w dot com science and research for asia. Latin to find his want to start families to become farmers or engineers every one of them has a plan of the initial for the children so nothing is just that the children who have already been the lawyer and those that will follow are part of a new kind of. They could be the future of. Granting opportunities global news that matters d. W. Made from minds. This is you news live from berlin protests in iran turned violent with at least two demonstrators being reportedly shot dead by police the news columns as protesters gather for a Third Straight day in cities across the country