UK Designer Grows Clothes From Bacteria

Posted by samzenpus on Monday July 12, 2010 @02:19AM from the my-shirt-is-sticky dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Experimental UK designer Suzanne Lee 'grows' clothes from bacteria. She has developed a method for growing clothing from yeast, a pinch of bacteria, and several cups of sweetened green tea. From this microbial soup, fibers begin to sprout and propagate, eventually resulting in thin, wet sheets of bacterial cellulose that can be molded to a dress form. As the sheets dry out, overlapping edges 'felt' together to become fused seams. When all moisture has evaporated, the fibers develop a tight-knit, papyrus-like surface."

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hmm, interesting implications by hypergreatthing · 2010-07-12 04:01 · Score: 4, Interesting

What would be interesting is if the bacteria can become dormant instead of dying. Then if you get a rip or tear on the clothes you apply some nutrients to the rip and in 24 hours it regrows and fixes itself. Though i'm thinking that's quite a ways away, it would be really neat instead of throwing away clothes like we do now. That or clothes that can grow/shrink with you, or clothes that shed like skin always new.