Fermenting
bacteria spinning solid skins, plant stalks interlocking to form
home-grown lace, human bone grown bangles: just a small selection of the
ideas that are born when textile designers meet biologists, material
scientists and physicists. Bridging the boundaries of science and
fashion, a series of projects are hoping to revolutionise the textile
industry, creating a cleaner future. On average for every kilogram of
textiles, 10 kilos of chemicals are used which are extremely harmful to
both our health and the environment – mainly affecting those in China,
India and other countries where these clothes are produced.
"Bridging the boundaries of science and fashion, a series of projects
are hoping to revolutionise the textile industry, creating a cleaner
future"
The Textile Futures Research Centre at University of Arts London is a hive of activity investigating "how can more sustainable futures be enabled by textiles?". Carol Collette, researcher
and course director of the MA Textile Futures course at Central Saint
Martins, is an enthusiastic explorer of the potential of synthetic
biology for cloth-making. Currently, she’s exploring a new concept for
producing lace grown from plants – dubbed BioLace Collette’s research
looks at apoptosis: the process in which cells are programmed to die for
the benefit of the whole organism – the way gaps between toes are
formed in a developing human. In plants, Collette hopes this could be a
way of growing the lattice-like lace structure.
Suzanne Lee is also part of the Textile Futures Research Centre,
where she has developed another textile growth technique which relies on
bacteria in a sugary green tea solution that spin microfibrils of pure
cellulose during fermentation, entitled BioCouture. These thin cellulose fibres form a dense skin layer on top of the liquid that can be harvested and dried.
Such collaborations look set to continue as a new initiative called The Textile Toolbox
launches next week between MISTRA future fashion and the Textiles
Environment Design at Chelsea Art School. The portal will provide an
open innovation platform for designers and experts to engage with and
foster new ideas for sustainable textiles and fashion, weaving paths for
the future of fabrics.