Future Foam; Food Waste to Fashion

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  The final dress on the form

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  The first layer we poured

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  peeling the dress we sewed from the form to reveal the right side

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  The final shoes

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  The head piece and ear set

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  Our design concepts

Our project was a race to work with slightly unconventional materials, urging the audience to acknowledge the shift towards circular materials. We used biofoam, made from accessible and afforadable ingredients to "cook" our fabric. Biofoam is gelatin (an animal waste product), dish soap, water, and food dye. Creating an extraterrestrial look while maintaining aesthetics was ignited by space age trends and fetish wear. We thought of movies like Fifth element and Barbarella while designing.

This piece evokes emotion. The first thing for creating change. We want a reaction from the viewers to captivate their attention to the material and create an alternate option for truly sustainable clothing.

This was originally a PhD project from our lab, however we tested new methods during this time to mold to a dress form, to wire, and to a second hand heel. We poured, cooked, and draped the biofoam.

The biggest challenge was drying everything in time. We could only work one layer at a time so everything had to be planned to the 30 minute mark.

We are super proud to make a wearable that is biodegradable and responsibly designed. Getting everything on the body from the head accessories to the shoes was all a success, even though we had never tried any of this material as clothing/accessories.

The biggest take away were how well the foam worked with pre-existing textiles. Mainly that we could even get it to be a wearable. We also learned how to work with big batches of material while the cool-down period was so short.

We would love to dress those interested in being congealed in biomaterials. If it is for events, then more people would be considerate of shifting towards a circular future.

Built With

• biomaterial
• chemistry
• fashion
• gravity
• heat
• r&d
• science
• sewing