Forever 21 creates screen of thread to show shoppers’ Instagram selfies

The retailer teamed up with Breakfast, a New York agency known for its interactive signs, to create the F21 Thread Screen. These bobbins are wrapped with fabric containing 36 colors and can mechanically recreate any image sent to its processor.

Forever 21 has built an enormous machine that displays people’s Instagrams photos and selfies in spools of thread.

Most Instagram users probably check their feed with a smartphone or similar device. Check out the behind the scenes Kickstarter campaign from 2012 to see exactly how much work goes into these creations.

Clothing company Forever 21 has created the ultimate low-resolution screen – and it’s made entirely out of thread.

“Forever 21 was looking to experiment with something quite different than what they’ve done in the past”. We focused on the thread, with it being the most basic element of fashion and quite versatile. Forever 21 is encouraging “Tried and True” best female friends (BFFs) around the world to tag their images with the #F21ThreadScreen hashtag so as to be in with a chance of appearing on the in-store screen. In the meantime, you can check out the videos above and below to see the machine in action. It’s an impressively complex piece of kit comprising over 200,000 parts, that took over a year and a half to build. Weighing in at 2,000 lb (907 kg), the F21 Thread Screen features 6.7 miles (10.7 km) of threaded fabric on its 6,400 spools.