Innovation And Technology: To "Grow" Clothes.

In 1997, the French director Luc Besson acted as a science fiction scene in the fifth elements. It doesn't seem so far now. In this movie, the future man can directly produce the body by machine and repair the defect tissue like knitted sweater.

Although "weave" has not yet fully realized its skin, it has become a reality to grow its own clothes called "second layers of skin". Fashion designer Suzanne Lee and the two biochemist Paul Freemont, Alexander Bismarck, the biological fashion project BioCouture, has been using microbes to produce several styles of fashion.

In 2010, Lee successfully planted fiber materials in tea water for the first time. The formula is to use sugar containing green tea water as a medium and add mixed yeast to cultivate certain or certain bacteria. After 2 to 4 weeks, something similar to cloth can grow in tea.

After drying, the edges of the overlapped materials will naturally join together, so the technology of biological garment even eliminates the traditional stitching process. In the garment making process, different patterns can be embedded in the material according to needs. When all the water evaporates, according to the formula, the texture of the clothes can be similar to paper or skin. Its surface is tightly packed like a papyrus medium. It also helps to dye natural plant dyes. It will feel softer and more comfortable under the action of body temperature.

10 years ago, at the age of 34, Lee interviewed a biologist and a material scientist in preparation for a book about the future of fashion. This made her find it feasible to use bacteria and other microorganisms to produce textile fibers. "Despite the fact that the trend of fashion is changing faster and faster today, the diversity of materials is still lacking, and there are few kinds of fibers available." Lee said to the first financial weekly.

Bacterial cellulose is only part of the field of microbial materials. Lee is now working with designers and scientists to develop new types of leather, silk and other textile materials.

She worked with South African designer Hamish Morrow to develop waterproof silk materials for sportswear, and was also studying the production of "spider silk" by printing "living organic matter". In addition, Lee is working with Modern Meadow, an American bio leather company who has developed "artificial meat". The company tries to implant living cells extracted from animal body into the surface of BioCouture biomaterial, thus showing the effect of different animal fur. Before these materials begin to grow, they can control their final quality, shape and color.

Lee, a fashion and textile fabric designer, now often seeks advice from biologists. She believes that biology can bring great imagination to the future textile fiber materials. Different DNA combinations can create materials with unprecedented functions and textures.

One of the advantages of biodegradation is that it can preset in advance. "For example, if you want this dress to wear for 3 months, you can set these elements before these organic fibers grow. This has also solved the problem of sustainability in mass production.

The traditional garment manufacturing industry is cutting out the needed shape from a large number of raw materials, and the parts cut off are discarded. BioCouture technology can directly grow the garment styles and shapes needed, and will not cause unnecessary waste of fiber materials. In addition, taking a leather jacket as an example, only 50 litres of water will be consumed by biological clothing, while the traditional manufacturing process will use up to 10000 litres.

The Time listed BioCouture as one of the 50 best inventions in 2010. Not long ago, the London Science Museum also held an exhibition for it.

The combination of technology and fashion has become the focus of attention in recent years. But most of the technological innovations are initiated by technology companies, which can produce excellent products, but to tell the truth, it is not necessarily beautiful to wear them. Lee hopes that the BioCouture project will encourage more designers to participate in the development and design of technology products.

Now, she has optimized some planting techniques similar to leather materials to make them look more fashionable. For example, a concept design "scar tights". Its material is similar to skin and scar like pattern, and inspiration comes from African tribal markings. The pattern of bean dots is like the shape of the microorganisms producing the clothes. In the words of Lee, it is like "the ghost in the textile mill". In addition, Lee has also designed a "biological denim jacket", which can be made of natural indigo and can be made into a dark blue effect without adding any chemical reagents.

In various attempts, she found that when exposed to metal elements, the biomaterial would form dark patterns. If a dyed Fermented Persimmon dyestuff was used, it could make the clothes more durable. This is the color that she learned from Japan. The dye used to ferment persimmon was once used by the firemen there to prevent fire.

However, in order to achieve commercialization, BioCouture, which is still in the pilot stage, must first solve the problem of controllability of bacterial growth. At present, these cellulose can not independently shape the shape, but the need for human intervention - to attach to the 3D mold of human body modeling, or through traditional sewing, to complete the shaping work. "Artificial repair process will inevitably leave" Scar "on the surface of the material. In order not to affect the whole pattern of the garment, it is necessary to have a very precise and strict control over the environment of regeneration and repair. Bismarck, co-founder and biochemist of BioCouture, told the first financial weekly.

Another problem that bothered him is that the bacterial cellulose absorbency is too strong. "After they encounter water, they will add 98% more weight. If they wear them, they will be burdened." One solution is to add petrochemical based waterproofing nano coatings, but Bismarck refuses to do so. "I believe there must be technology that allows us to fully maintain the biological properties of this garment technology." Now, he is studying how to add a technology of water repellent in the process of bacterial growth.

At present, microbes will be killed as BioCouture after making garments. But in the vision of Lee, these microbes in the future should be able to continue to live on the clothes they produce and interact with the human body. In a harmonious microbiological community environment, biological fibers can perceive changes in human body functions and react to detect the state of human body, and even treat certain diseases.

The main target of BioCouture cooperation is extravagant Brand names, that is, those that do not require mass production. Although the cost of microorganism is very low, it can achieve very strong reproductive capacity by feeding only with waste, but the cost of laboratory equipment and environment is very high.

BioCurious in Silicon Valley may be able to solve. Lee The capital dilemma is that the company provides low cost biotech equipment and laboratory space for investors and entrepreneurs, and the founders themselves are experts in the field of digital biology. The so-called digital biology is the technology that helps biologists to read and write genetic code.

"I'm about these new ones. Solution The more I know, the less I want to go back to the traditional fashion world, where I can't find the value of being a designer. Lee said.

Although research and development progress is much more difficult than imagined, BioCouture seems to have made Lee find its own value, and it seems that she is not satisfied with just planting clothes. "No matter a suit, a pair of shoes, a chair, or even a house, we will soon be able to grow it."