Fashion is something that is often times an alien concept to me. It took me a long time to gain an appreciation for why women would want to own more than one or two pairs of shoes. I understand it now, but there are still a myriad variety of niches within the world of clothing that I simply haven’t come to terms with yet, and likely never will.
But this new type of clothing, despite what will probably be aversive initial reactions for most people, I can somehow connect with.
Yahoo has this article on clothes made from Wine. That statement alone might be good for catching attention but not very good at accurately describing what the dress is. What it really is happens to be a cellulose fabric that is created when a culture of a specific type of non-hazardous bacteria gets introduced to the wine (or beer and other alcoholic beverages too). The microbes change the alcoholic beverage into a useable material that retains the beverage’s original color and scent.
Currently, the quick and easy (and cheap) method they’ve been doing involves pouring the sludge like material over the body of the model being fitted for the clothes and allowing the substance to finish its metamorphosis into a solid garment. This eliminates all the normal steps of tailoring and sewing, saving time and money, but I can’t honestly believe that this’ll be the preferred method for creating clothes if it ever takes off. I imagine instead a scenario where the substance is poured over slightly larger preformed sculptures, carefully removed and tailored to have the appropriate zippers, laces, etc…
Now you might have the same gut reaction that I think most folks will have. The fact that this is created by microbes and wine may seem “ew” to you. Well, that’s understandable, but then again we should keep in mind that “silk” isn’t exactly created from an ew-free process either.
I think there could be a place for this alcoholic type of fabric in our world, provided its creators play their cards right. Thankfully, the movers and shakers of the fashion industry are probably crazy enough to make the gamble.
