The Beginning Tour

A collaboration between Philips Lighting’s chief design officer, Rogier Van der Heide, B. Åkerlund, the Black Eyed Peas’ lead costume designer/stylist and wearable technology visionaries Benjamin Males and Nancy Tilbury. Video costumes were designed and developed for  Fergie, Taboo, and apl.de.ap using the latest LED and OLED technology, seamlessly integrated into costumes and all controlled wirelessly through industry standard DMX.

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80,000 fans thronged the Stade de France in Paris to kick off The Black Eyed Peas’ “The Beginning” tour and to be the first to see the costumes come to life: colour and light animating completely synchronised to the beat of the music.

Benjamin was commissioned by Phillips Lighting to help develop the concepts for the costumes and to lead the technical development in collaboration with Engineer and Designer Marc DeVidts. He developed the control electronics for Fergie's OLED dress and integrated an OEM wireless DMX module, developing firmware that allowed the controller board to read the incoming DMX and animate the dress accordingly. 

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Year: 2011
Client: Phillips Lighting
In collaboration with Nancy Tilbury