Hemp product of the year, BASF’s sun protection, saving kiwi with algae, biodegradable polyester fashion, renewable surfactants, and more: The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of June 19th

#4 Fashion students innovate with garments made of pineapple, slime

In London, fashion students at the Royal College of Arts favored sustainable and renewable materials at this year’s runway show, including pineapple-based leather and clothes grown using slime and molds.

“Fashion and sustainability have to now be one. You have to be thinking in different ways,” student Andrew Bell tells Reuters. “Fashion has been doing the same thing for so long, we’ve created the same black top and the same black jeans and we’re constantly calling them new…there’s actually nothing new about these items.”

For example, Margot Vaaderpass made tops, coats, trousers and skirts from pineapple leather with biodegradable buttons for the show, and Piero D’Angelo is working on a process to grow garments by introducing fast-growing slime to pre-made patterns. “We designed a 3D printed prototype … Once we apply the slime mold it will just grow, spread all over, connecting each of those holes,” he adds. “I am fascinated by the idea of growing garments and working with different materials, like living materials but also pushing further the idea of fashion.”
More on the story, here.