Over the past years, biomimicry has gained some traction in various fields ranging from medicine to management, but most importantly, fashion design.
Before getting into the details, let's take a look at this intriguing concept. Biomimicry is a design practice seeking inspiration from solutions found in nature that have emerged overtime through natural selection in order to solve complex problems. A more thorough definition is given by The Biomimicry Institute: "Biomimicry is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies."
The concept of biomimicry was first believed to have emerged in 1997 but its idea was already at use long before as Leonardo Da Vinci's first real studies of birds and human flight in the 1480s reveal. A more concrete example would be umbrellas, which originated in China thanks to a man who had an epiphany while seeing children using lotus leaves to shield themselves from the rain.
Sustainability wise, biomimicry has a lot to offer and holds many promises for the fashion industry. Not only can it improve our current practices but impact the durability of the materials used as well. Werewool for instance, specializes in revolutionary biodegradable fibers made out of cross-linked proteins found in corals, jellyfish, oysters and even cow milk. The particular DNA of these fibers allow it to have inherent properties such as colour, moisture management and stretch customers are looking for. Additionally, compared to synthetic fibers, Werewool's technology doesn't increase CO2 emissions as it doesn't rely on agriculture or petrochemicals, nor does it contribute to micro plastic pollution and toxic dyeing.
Similarly, Bolt Threads has made exciting discoveries in the last decade on high-performing materials. The company recently developed Mylo, an alternative to leather and Microsilk, a biodegradable silk, both of which have been used by designer Stella McCartney.
Mylo is vegan and sustainable leather made from ecological connective tissue called mycelium. Even though most of us are unfamiliar with mycelium, it plays an important role in the ecosystem as it threads through soil, plant bodies, and along river beds to break down organic matter and nourish plants and trees with nutrients. In a sense, mycelium is the world wide web and it is truly amazing to it transform into soft and supple leather.
Here is an explanation of how such a transition occurs:
On the other hand, Microsilk is protein-based which gives it the potential to biodegrade. Produced via synthetic replication of spiders' silk properties, Microsilk manages to be strong, elastic and a soft fabric all at once.
Here is an overview of the process:
Innovations born out of biomimicry don't only serve purely sustainable purposes but highly creative ones as well. Dutch fashion designer Iris Van Herpen perfectly illustrates this in her work as she often infuses her garments with technology. One of her collections in particular, Syntopia (A/W 2018) which refers to a future more or less identical to the present, neither dystopic nor utopic but rather a combination of technology and biology, takes inspiration from the flight of birds. The motion of the bird in flight as represented below is captured by the designer through her draping style and her feather-like layering. She is able to do so by using chronophotography – a Victorian photographic technique that captures movement in several frames of print – to link the way fabric drapes with the way feathers move during flight. This unique technique gives her garments a life of its own, thereby hypnotizing its spectator into a slow trance.
Biomimicry isn't only destined for Syntopia but also Dystopia/Utopia, depending on your love for the ocean. With rising sea levels, we are bound to consider solutions for a world in which we are permanently semi-submerged underwater. This is where Designer Jun Kamei comes in with an ambitious project. Consisting of a respiratory mask and gill, his 3-D printed garment named Amphibio, is meant to support underwater breathing.
Its system is inspired by the thin layer of trapped air on the surface of the superhydrophobic skin of water-diving instects which operates as a gas-exchanging gill. The three rings embracing the neck, hollow inside and filled with air, form a similar device to breathe in and out via the mask which is connected to the gill by a tube. For now, Amphibio doesn't produce enough oxygen to sustain human breathing but is fully capable of extracting oxygen from water and release carbon dioxide. Kamei's next step is to test his prototype on human beings as he states that, "In the near future, it could allow the wearer to stay underwater longer than in free diving, but with less equipment – such as a smaller gas tank – than used in scuba diving."
The fashion industry as a whole could shift towards a biomimetic economy and function as an ecosystem but, hypotheses and fashion set aside, biomimicry once again proves nature is wise, reminding us we better use her gifts before our time is up.
Louise Wuyts
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