ELIZ Studio
A woman in a dark coat wears SOLIS: a rounded knit crown and a wide flat brim with a thin line of light along its edge.

A speculative concept by ELIZ Studio

A hat with a brim that answers the sun.

Small panels would rise in direct light and lie flat in shade.

Rendered from the 3D model on this page
Concept film · 00:09
Close view of the brim's top surface: rings of long flat panels on straight joints, the knit crown above and the lit edge below.

Turn it

Turn it in the light.

Drag the hat sideways to turn it. The light comes from one fixed sun on the left: whichever panels face it lift, and they lie flat again as they turn away.

Interactive

Move the sun.

Drag across the hat, or use the controls below. Panels facing the sun lift open; the rest lie flat.

The light in this view is fixed, so everything that changes is the panels.

Close-up, front right of the brim. Bring the sun round to the right and these panels stand up. Take it away and they lie flat again.

Sun low, from the left

0% of panels open · steepest 0°

Whole brim from above. Pale panels are open; the dot is the sun.

Finishes

Noir, Ivoire, Chrome.

Noir. Matte black knit. It takes the light in.

Graphite air, a shaft of low light.

Scroll through the three finishes, or choose one.

How it might work

Three layers.

  1. Crown. A knit shell in four panels that holds the shape.
  2. Sensing ring. Light sensors at the base of the crown that would tell where the sun is.
  3. Adaptive brim. Twelve rings of flat panels that would tilt towards the light.

Speculative study · untested

A band under the brim.

A further idea, kept apart from the brim: a narrow band set into the underside, a few centimetres in front of and above the eyes, that would show short messages to the wearer and be meant to stay dark to people nearby.

What people nearby would see: the hat, and nothing on the band.Made from the 3D model; the wearer is a plain silhouette. The line of light is an illustration of the idea, not a working display: nothing like it has been built, focused or tested.
Where the band would sitSide section of the hat. A short band is marked on the underside of the brim near its front edge, facing down towards where the wearer would be.bandfront →
Where the band would sit: a section through the hat, drawn from the 3D model. It is not a fourth layer of the hat.

Untested. No band has been built or optically tested. Four questions are open:

  • Focus. Whether an eye could focus on text this close at all.
  • Optics. What lens or light guide it would need to become readable.
  • Eye angle. Whether glancing up to it would be comfortable for more than a moment.
  • Privacy. Whether people nearby would really be unable to read it.