Response to Christine's "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" Question #4

Time's special report on the 50 Best Inventions of 2010 came out a couple of weeks ago. The full list can be found here:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2029497,00.html

I was especially amused and inspired by two of the advancements in the field of clothing.

The first is a textile made from the bacteria usually used to turn green tea into the delicious and addictive fermented beverage kombucha. According to Time, Suzanne Lee, a researcher at London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, discovered that when the bacteria digests sugar, they "produce a mat of cellulose, which Lee figured out how to harvest and dry. The resulting fabric, which has a vaguely skinlike texture, can be molded and sewn into shirts and coats. It's not perfect yet; if it gets wet, it absorbs up to 98% of its weight and "gets heavy and gooey."

Pictured is a Members Only-esque jacket stitched from this "BioCouture" fabric.

The second invention is this plastic-fur coat:

As the article says, "Most of us toss those annoying plastic price-tag fasteners without a second thought, but Maison Martin Margiela Artisanal's coat gives 29,000 of them a new life. The French avant-garde fashion house — known for transforming shoelaces, combs and wigs into couture dresses — spent 42 hours embroidering the fasteners in a herringbone pattern on a leather coat, turning the disposable into a fashion statement: fake fake fur. "It's a message about sustainability, but done with humor," says Matilda McQuaid, a curator at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 'saying we should look at reusing our resources. We need to stop and think about what we immediately discard.' "

In case you're curious, here is a sampling of some of Maison Martin Margiela Artisanal's other designs.

The Shoelace Dress

The Comb Tunic

...and my favorite, The Tinsel Dress

Here's my leapfrog pitch:

MEMORANDIUM

DATE: Right NOW!

TO: All of the Fashion Forward Men and Women Out There Who Also Happen to Love the Planet

FROM: A Concerned Constituant

SUBJECT: Do you care what you wear?

Question: Where does polyester, acrylic, acetate, nylon, spandex, rayon, and latex all come from?

Answer: OIL! Unless you were interested in self-immolation, wouldn't drive to the gas station and drench yourself. Why then would you cover your head, torso, arms, and legs with a fiber produced from petroleum, an non-renewable resource?

Question: How green are your blue jeans?

Answer: Consider this: About 1,500 gallons of water are required to produce the 1.5 pounds of cotton used to make a single pair of jeans. If you're like most Americans, you have eight pairs of jeans in your closet. That's 12,000 gallons of water if you buy your jeans new. Additionally, the polluting doesn't stop there. http://www.onearth.org/article/how-green-are-your-jeans

Solution #1:

THRIFT!

or "borrow" clothes from your friends!

Solution #2:

Sustainable Fabrics like organically produced cotton, hemp, soy, bamboo, and linen.

or better yet!

Untraditional Fabrics! Lady Gaga is doing it! Why not you? Instead of throwing that plastic bag away, use it as a bathing suit. Collect all of the lint from your dryer to weave into a cozy winter hat and scarf. Why eat your food when you can wear it?

What a hunk!

This is what all the women in Paris were wearing this fall!