SOIL•BIORI•ASHION
How can I develop a biomaterial for fashion which can bioremediate the soil after use?
2021 July
The fashion industry is contributing to a decline in soil health in a variety of ways. Soil is a family of microbes and plants impacted by the carbon-nitrogen ratio and petroleum contaminants. The healthy soil microbes will be dormant or replaced by other baleful microbes in incorrectly unbalanced carbon-nitrogen soil. Specifically, the fashion industry contaminates soil by: discarding synthetic, non-degradable materials into landfill. The soil will gradually lose its bioremediation ability until it becomes barren meaning that there will be less land for crops and grazing after abuse. It is an awful cycle for a designer concerned with fashion sustainability. Therefore, my project aims to improve the carbon-nitrogen ratio by creating garments and accessories made from compostable casein bioplastic, while utilizing mycoremediation of living blue oyster mycelium to clean petroleum contaminants.
The name of the project, SOIL•BIORI•ASHION, is a combination of the words soil, bioremediation, and fashion.
The garment is made from casein bioplastic and living mycelium. The casein bioplastic can be decomposed into amino acids by soil microbes, and therefore can provide nutrients for the natural soil microbes and plants. Living mycelium has a unique mycoremediation function to clean petroleum contaminants in soil, such as TNT, PAHs, and heavy metals. Therefore, the fashion products could bioremediate soil and improve the soil quality via landfill at the end of their lifespan.
The textile design uses weaving and pleating, threadless linking, laser-cutting on fabric, and a mycelium-casein pyramids with hand stitching.
The mycelium-casein pyramids are a specific structure designed to protect the living mycelium while ensuring wearability of the product. The pyramid structure is inspired by geometric aesthetics from mathematical art. I combine natural results and modern design to appeal to modern aesthetics for the fashion market. The mycelium-casein pyramids are hand-stitched with unbleached organic cotton thread; and reinforced by the casein glue.
Casein bioplastic weaving and threadless linking are joined using casein glue. Laser cutting has a good result on casein biomaterial but pleating was unsuccessful as it is difficult to control.
The mycelium activity assay is to test whether the wind-dried mycelium is alive or not.
The colour of casein bioplastic will change from its formation in a wet state until the end of the product’s lifespan.
The casein bioplastic is semi-transparent. You can see the shadow of the mycelium through the material in some specific lighting. The casein bioplastic will naturally change colour, which means the colour of the garment becomes darker over time
The line-up and industrial CAD drawings visually represent the garment designs made of the casein bioplastic and living mycelium. To test the new fabric’s durability has been difficult in a short term, but I believe it is possible to mass produce it and commercialism it using niche marketing strategies.