Headpiece Encrusted With Color-Change Swarovski Spinel Is a Contemporary Take on the 1970's Mood Ring

A leather headpiece mounted with 4,000 lab-grown Swarovski spinel stones has the ability to change color in response to brain activity, delivering a high-tech and grown-up version of one of the memorable fads of all time — the mood ring.

Children of the 1970s like to reminisce about their mood rings, the inexpensive baubles featuring a "gem" that changed color in response to the body’s temperature. The inventors cleverly bonded what was essentially a thin liquid crystal thermometer to the back of a clear quartz stone, enabling the surprising color-change effect to be seen through the faux gem.

Now, nearly 40 years later, Lauren Bowker of the London-based fashion house The Unseen has created a gem-emblazoned head covering that absorbs the energy loss from the head. The stones start as black spinel, but have the ability to change from black to orange to red to green to blue to purple based on the part of the brain in use. The headpiece actually covers the wearer’s forehead, temples, ear tops and back of the neck.

“When worn, the headpiece becomes a reflection of the inner human thought,” Bowker told Cnet.com.

The Swarovski black spinel stones are coated in Bowker’s signature color-changing ink, which is sensitive to temperature changes. The stones serve as heat conductors.

Bowker claims that excitement, nervousness and fear all produce different colors. Shifting emotions result in a brilliant, colorful display.

The designer explained to Dezeen.com that mornings generally produce orange color patterns at the front of the brain, while evening patterns tend to be bluer and in the back right of the brain.

Attendees of London Fashion Week in September will be able to get a first-hand look at Bowker’s gem headpiece at The Unseen’s emporium in Somerset House.

(Headpiece photos: The Unseen)