Everyone wants to be on the cutting edge of fashion. To stay atop the fashion world we occasionally overlook some petty grievances like where the clothes were made and what kind of conditions they were made in. The human brain can conveniently forget just about anything in the name of looking good. But what about gruesome, bacteria that literally grows on to your body to create a form-fitting, yet gorgeous, dress? Can the human brain overlook that?
This is not something out science fiction. This is real and this is now. Enter Micro’be’ Fermented Fashion, the only makers of all-organic, all fermented fabric dresses in the world. Prepare to be both curious and repulsed in equal measure. The company, which is made up of researchers at the University of Western Australia, has successfully fused the world of haute fashion and, um, hot self-replicating bacteria. The tech works by taking acetobacter, the bacteria that ferments wine into vinegar, and turning it into a “living” fabric. The by-product of creating a large colony of this type of bacteria is the formation of micro-fibers of cellulose which are synonymous with plant based cottons. You get where I’m going with this? Your pour on the bacteria “sludge” and it latches on to your body, acting like a second skin, until it dries into a lovely dress.
The researchers derive this bacteria from common, and drinkable, alcohols. The red dress seen in the photos attached to this post were made from red wine, for example. The process can also use other types of wine and even beer to similar results. By the way, the finished fabric still smells like the source alcohol. So perhaps you should not wear these to work. Don’t want to encourage the reputation that you are a drunk, after all.
These dresses are not available commercially as of yet, but don’t worry, just like a teeming mass of bacteria-laced zombies they are coming.
