Saving the land doesn't necessarily mean a return to it. Especially if that means no more fashion...um, no thanks. Happily, there are innovative thinkers approaching the problem by working with Mother Nature, in particular with plant systems and their programming at the level of the cells. By tinkering in this area, they are able to biologically manufacture plants that produce nutritionally-supplemented foods and...fashionable accouterments.
The hybrid plant above produces strawberries in a Vitamin C-rich shade of black from the top end, while the root-end grows matching Haute Couture'ish lace. And like the Fragraria Fusca Tenebris (Strawberry Noir), Ocimum Basilicum Rosa would produce culinary and medicinal Basil No. 5 and a perfumed lace trim, while Solamum Lycopene Fabricae would yield both lace and a crop of tomatoes rich in Mother Nature's UV protective factor: lycopene.
Who knows how the Spinacia Aurea Electrica would taste but the fact your spinach came from a plant that grew micro-biological transistors for the electronics sector is nothing short of extremely cool. "This post 2050 scenario considers a radical mean to combine food production together with textile production, thus designing plants that could replace textile macherinery but also provide nutrients," explains Carole Collet of the Textile Futures Research Centre at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design about her project. "BioLace is a speculative design-led research project that investigates the intersection of synthetic biology and textile design to propose future fabrication processes for textiles. The motivation behind this research lies in the hypothesis that living technology can foster a new approach to address some of the key sustainable challenges of the 21st century." (via)
Here's the podcast I recorded about this eco-topian scenario and the FUTURENETICS fashion tribe:
Music: StyleFunk by Kevin MacLeod, Incompetech.com
- Lesley Scott
FOLLOW FASHIONTRIBES ON TWITTER!
JOIN US ON FACEBOOK!
FRIEND US ON FOURSQUARE!
HEART OUR TUMBLR!