BioCouture: Clothes That Are Grown

There is fantastic work happening in the realm of fashion. Materials (texturally translucent and as stunning as leather) are being grown using bacterial cellulose in laboratories to create beautiful garments. "Imagine growing a dress in a vat of liquid using bacteria," says Suzanne Lee, founder of BioCouture, a London-based bio-fashion consultancy that is the first of its kind. It collaborates with scientists to create organic fabrics—fabrics so versatile in character that they can be cut, shaped, folded and sown.

The Kombucha recipe—a mix of cider vinegar, sugar, some luminous green tea and a shot of yeast and bacteria—is used to make the textile. Through the process of fermentation, the micro-organisms work as tiny powerhouses, spinning thin nanofibres that merge over a period of time and transform into a layered, film-like sheet of cellulose. The sheet is then harvested, washed and dried to eventually create chic, wearable outfits.

 

Suzanne Lee, who is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Fashion/Textiles at Central Saint Martins, London, first learned about this phenomenon while researching for her book, Fashioning the Future: Tomorrow’s Wardrobe. Other than speaking to designers, she also interacted with scientists and engineers, and it was during one of these interviews that one biologist introduced this revelatory process to her. 'So we started to collaborate; we got some funding and worked on a project to see if we could grow some material using microbes,’ she says in a documentary titled, The Next Black. The success of the project convinced her that they were standing at the threshold of a new fashion era. 

Since then, BioCouture has created a middle ground where path-breaking science and innovative design come together to form a cohesive whole. From Kimonos and Bomber Jackets to shoes and luxury sportswear, BioCouture is creating excellent prototypes (see images). The home-grown materials are sustainable and bio-degradable, which means that they are great companions of the environment. Their longevity though, is questionable. Each piece of the garment is destined to undergo the natural process of decomposition, but the team at BioCouture is working with scientists to address this drawback.

The future of fashion is constantly evolving and brimming with endless possibilities. It’s only a matter of time when the luxury stores and boutiques in your city will be offering rows of algae, yeast, bacteria and fungi to choose from.

{fashion, innovation, science} 

This piece was written for Platform Magazine, India