TED 2011: Fermented Frocks, the New Couture
- By Kim Zetter
- March 1, 2011 |
- 12:28 pm |
- Categories: TED, TED2011
They might be if British designer Suzanne Lee can solve one little problem with a new fabric she’s created from fermented yeast and microbes.
Lee got the idea for fermenting textile from a biologist who planted the idea in her mind that she could create a dress from bacteria, yeast and sweetened green tea (or sweetened water). Left to ferment for two to three weeks and the result is bacterial cellulose that, when dried, resembles sheets of translucent paper, vegetable leather or even dried human skin.
Lee’s Bio Couture project envisions fabric farms where “crops” of bacterial cellulose could be harvested for clothes, furniture or accessories. Bacterial cellulose is already used for wound healing and could in the future be used for blood vessels or even replacement bone tissue, Lee suggested.
Lee wore a vest (pictures) during a presentation of her product at the Technology Entertainment and Design conference on Tuesday. A Senior Research Fellow in the School of Fashion and Textiles at Central Saint Martins in London, Lee is one of several dozen TED fellows ? a program designed to open TED?s elite doors to up-and-coming thinkers and doers who are invited to attend the conference for free.
The bacteria spins tiny threads of pure cellulose which, over weeks, come together in layers that form a mass on the surface of the liquid. It takes two to three weeks to produce an inch-thick layer. Once the water is evaporated, sheets of dried material remain that can be cut into patterns and sewn conventionally or, while still wet, can be formed around a 3D mold — such as a mannequin or a lamp or bowl — to take the shape of the object. “As it evaporates,” Lee said, “it’s stitching itself together; you don’t need to sew it.”
The cellulose can be fermented in colored solution to tint the fabric or can be dyed with vegetable stains afterward. The size of the fabric sheet is limited by the size of the vat in which it’s fermented.
It’s also efficient.
“We could make it from a waste stream [such as] a waste sugar stream from a processing plant,” Lee said, and when the material is no longer needed it could be chucked out on the compost pile with vegetable peelings to biodegrade.
The only problem is, the material isn’t water resistant and absorbs 100 times its weight in liquid. Wear a cellulose garment in the rain, and it would swell with water.
“The dress would get really heavy and eventually the seams would probably fall apart, leaving me sitting around naked,” Lee said. “Probably a good performance piece, but definitely not ideal for everyday wear.”
Lee is working on ways of making the material water-resistant with natural materials.
Kim Zetter is a senior reporter for Wired covering cybercrime, civil liberties, privacy, and security. Follow Kim's complete coverage of TED 2011 here.
Follow @KimZetter on Twitter.
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