Digital fabrication: Hat piece

What if we can grow, print and laser cut our own clothes from synthetic and natural biology?

Designers Natsai Audrey Chieza, Suzanne Lee and designer & architect Neri Oxman all believe that biology is the future for fashion, astronaut gear, furniture and even housing. All three designers agree that bacteria can help us to grow these new materials. For designer Natsai it was the bacteria Streptomyces ceolicolor that helped her to make striking pigments that help her dye clothing that is non- toxic and uses less water. Designer Lee used bacteria in the air to help her Kombucha-sugar mixture to grow vegie-leather. And last but least designer and architect Oxman use biotechnology and 3D printers to produce chitosan paste to produce clothing.

: Natsai Audrey Chieza

: Research Neri Oxman

Research and Inspiration

: Bio technology with Fungi

: Bio technology

: Neri Oxman

: Fungi under microscope

: 3D printed Hat example

: 3D printed Hat example

: Yohji Yamamto 2018 fashion line

: Hat inspiration

: Mushroom

My design is all biotechnology inspired. I am very fascinated by to grow mushroom mycelium into a 3D object like a hot. Mushroom help us to decompose litter and produce nutrients that nourish our soils. In other words, mushrooms, worms, and bacteria help us to decompose garbage and organic waste we find in nature. Hence why I wanted to my design to match the look of a mushroom. My research mainly focuses on sustainable and recycled new materials that help us to reduce consumption on earth finite resources. A statement of seeing fashion as an ecosystem. Pollutant and wasteful now but in future seams may not exist anymore since bio leather, made from a liquid yeast, can be molded together to connect pieces. We may face a future where 3D printers and bio fashion out roll sawing and knitting machines. We may experience that biology we find in nature, solves the problems of fashion being a polluter now but not in future. Questions over questions; an ongoing experiment with no answers and no conclusion.

Sketches, ideas, and exploration of stretching fabrics