Vintage fashion will never be the same

While many great ideas come about as a result of a bottle of wine or two, Micro'be' Fermented Fashion showcases Australian fashion items literally created from wine. The exhibition (Aug 19-31) is a centrepiece of the Ultimo Science Festival, a National Science Week 2008 event.

The scientist behind the wine dress on show, Gary Cass, from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Western Australia, says the new fabric is futuristic.

“We have combined art and science knowledge and a little inventiveness, to produce a fermented seamless garment that forms without a single stitch,” Mr Cass says. “When we leave a barrel of wine to ‘go off’, bacteria (Acetobacter) convert the wine into vinegar and make a cellulose by-product, the substance from which cotton is made. We take this cotton-like cellulose material, which smells like alcohol and feels like sludge when wet, and mould it onto a collapsible mannequin.

“After leaving it to dry, we remove the mannequin and are left with the dress, which fits as snugly as a second skin,” Cass says. “The wine used in the fermentation process determines the colour of the fabric: red wine makes red fabric, white wine, or even beer, makes a translucent material. This unique material could potentially transform the future of fashion,” he says.

Download the complete  Media Alert 254.50 Kb.