Kombucha Klothes

Everybody knows money doesn’t grow on trees, but Suzanne Lee begs to differ. She has recently discovered how to make a profit that grows itself: clothes. As a fashion designer, she knew there were other ways to make garments than stripping cows, pumping oil, and picking cotton. Well after enough dreaming and befriending a biologist, Ms. Lee decided to turn her bathtub into a breeding ground for style. It may sound unbelievable, but she has found a way to make microbes sew themselves together. It all started with some green tea, sugar, and microorganisms, the basic recipe of Kombucha.

The bacterial clothes are formed from a leathery zoogeal mat (bacteria pancake) that grows, dries, shrinks, and seals its seams. How she applies different colors and patterns is shown in images throughout her blog. It is creativity like this that inspire people to go beyond the conventional way of living and into the future. Suzanne Lee and her Kombucha clothes are just the start to a whole new field of biological fashion. We may see models in dried seaweed strutting the runway this fall season, who knows. Something tells me that this way to make clothes will not only reside in Suzanne Lee’s bathtub, but branch out into a whole new competitive market. If I was a fashion designer, I would certainly make friends with the recipe and a few bathrooms.

We have lost something as an American culture. Being at work in an office, getting caught up in our lives, and not taking a second to reach deep into our imaginations has voided us of wonder. I love this new idea of BioCouture because it puts that admiration of unexpected beauty back in the limelight and shows people there are still ways to reinvent the wheel without it being difficult. Sometimes the most simplest things in life are the answer. Just imagine.

Photo credit: flickr.com/photos/orphanjones/5517805595/sizes/s/in/photostream/