BIOCOUTURE at SELFRIDGES for FESTIVAL OF IMAGINATION with SUPER/COLLIDER and AMY CONGDON

On Sunday the 16^th of Feb 2014, Selfridges held a Biocouture workshop for Festival of Imagination, in collaboration with Super/Collider and Amy Congdon.

Suzanne Lee opens the workshop with an introduction to microbial cellulose and introduces us to the edible, sweet kombucha style dessert popular to many in the far east of the world. This dessert originated from a coconut recipe in the Philippines, known as Nata de Coco (translating to cream of coconut); this dish is often flavoured with various fruit syrups. The fermentation of the coconut water creates a jelly like substance, which gels together through the production of microbial cellulose – a naturally occurring bacterium in the fermentation process.

Suzanne spoke about the well-known and loved kombucha health drink, and offers everyone a taste.

We were shown these simple food stuffs as kombucha drink and the dessert is the result of the fermentation of a live kombucha culture, which is the production method of growing the fabric for the above skirt!

“Kombucha is a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeasts (SCOBY).
The main bacteria, Gluconacetobacter xylinum, produces nanofibrils of cellulose which self-organise into a nano-structured, textile-like material.” ~ Biocouture

Live kombucha culture is a byproduct and foodstuffs made of kombu, or kelp, from the seaweed family, Laminariaceae.

Microbial cellulose samples

Susan Lee's Biocouture Jacket 

Microbial cellulose skirt

The fabric itself feels softer than you’d imagine at first glance. Eight sheets are lined up before us – with smaller sheets that are textured with salt, or that have been laser cut. We each get to have a feel – some caress it, other sniff it, while Suzanne encourages someone to scrunch it up, and then watch it go back to its original form, barely creased. So on first glance and through that experiment, the first impression of the fabric is that it’s durable and relatively hard wearing – it doesn’t scratch, tear or get creased up easily. But Suzanne goes on to explain that, if it got damp enough, it would turn back into its original state – it would absorb water and produce more bacteria that it is made from.

If leather got damp enough, it would do the same – it would become a little less durable and more rubbery to touch. That being said, this fabric has been known as a potential ‘leather alternative’.

The commercial ability of this material derived from bacteria isn’t strong, although, the purpose, as defined by Suzanne Lee and Amy Congdon, is to invite audiences into new ways of seeing and understanding the potentiality of this organic, and smart use of resources and to translate this into more ideas, and to design with this theory in mind.