Biomimicry

I'm going to start focusing a few of my blog entries on 'Eco, Sustainable and Slow' Fashion as in 14 months time I will be starting my blog on this subject. I chose it as I've always been obsessed with the unique and innovative and I believe there is some really creative ideas coming under this subject. One of those is the idea od "Biomimicry", which is the green idea of "using nature as an idea to solve design problems". Some of these are not necessarily sustainable but theres a lot that do help towards a better environment. Here are some of the existing ideas I have discovered.

Karen Ingham has created a line of "Pollinator Frocks". It has been researched and  discovered that the bee population is shrinking and this supposedly threatens humans in terms of their food sources. So, the designs are treated with a "nectar-like sugar solution" to encourage bees and butterflies to pollinate. It is an interesting solution though I'm not sure how one would react to becoming a bee magnet !

When discussing Biomimicry, Ada Zanditon is a designers name that will always appear. She too translates the idea of the collapse of bee colonys but in a way that she tells the story through the clothing; she instead draws awareness to the issue. Her "Colony" Spring/Summer 2010 collection takes examples from Hexagonal Honey combs in structure, showing how high fashion and sustainability can work hand in hand with one another. She uses sustainable fabrics too and concentrates on enhancing the life cycle of her products.

Fashion Designer Mattijs van Bergen and Landscape architect Anouk Vogel collaborated to create the "Living" dress. Constructed from recycled bicycle inner tubes and wool, the idea of the dress is that it evolves every season. Its surface is constructed of "vase" like structures that can be filled with water and then topped up with flowers in various positions and of different designs to make a dress that can be ever changing.

Tara Baoth Mooney, a graduate of the London College of Fashio, created a collar that is actually made from textured moss !

Finally, Donna Sgro uses "Morphotex", a nanotechnology based fibre that mimics a morpho butterflies wings due to a trick of the light. The benefits is its lustrous hue is created without the use of dyes which saves on water and energy.