Is it possible to get fruits and dresses from a plant?

Edited by Zhao Xinhua

Would you eat a vitamin—rich black strawberry from a plant that has also produced your little black dress?The research comes from a project that Carole Collet, a professor of the Textile Futures Research Centre at Cen—tral Saint Martins College in London, has been working on Biolace, a research that connects textiles, food pro—duction and sustainability since years. Her research tar—gets the year 2050 and beyond. By anticipating future key socio—economic factors and technological timelines,she aims at impacting today’s design directions so as to enable a more resilient and sustainable future.

Fast—forward to the year 2050. Overpopulation, cli—mate change and extreme resource shortages challenge us to think in a radically different way. New organisms have been genetically engineered to produce textiles and improved food crops — all in one plant. Although currently not possible today, such synthetic plants could exist in 20 years time, according to some scientists. Carole Col—let combines design and science to explore efficient and sustainable alternatives.

The project Biolace introduces four imaginary plants: Basil n° 5, Gold Nano Spinach, Factor 60 Tomato en Strawberry Noir. Their DNA has been reprogrammed so that their roots grow in a lace pattern. Plants become living machines, simply needing sun and water to be op—erational. In such a scenario, we would harvest fruits and fabrics at the same time from the same plants.

The aim of this project is to bring to light the po—tential of emerging living technologies and to questions the pros and cons of such extreme genetic engineering.Actually, the conversion of food into fabric has long been an important research target in the fashion industry.

Biomaterials innovator MycoWorks announced in 2022 the commercial launch of the first fashion items made with its flagship mycelium material, Reishi?. The Reishi? Collection by luxury hatmaker Nick Fouquet includes the Reishi? Boletus, Coprinus, and Morchella hats, now available in limited runs on NickFouquet.com.

A bioplastics research project in Scotland is looking to create clothing fibers from seafood processing waste.They are exploring a new bio—based process that could see fish processing waste used to create one of the key components in the production of nylon. The group are taking waste material generated as part of fish process—ing and using biological enzymes to extract the fatty components of the fish waste. Through advanced mo—lecular biology, genetically modified bacteria can then turn the fatty components into a mixture of adipic acid and useful by—products.

Around 116 million tons of expired milk are thrown out every single year. Mi Terro, a biotechnology company that turns trashed milk into fashionable T—shirts. They collect milk deemed otherwise inedible from establish—ments including dairy farms and grocery stores. It then goes through their novel technology called Pro—Act,which removes unfavorable protein molecules. The pro—tein is then purified, powdered, and stretched into yarn to create a soft top called the Limitless Milk Shirt.

Now is the future, and today's creativity foresees the future of fashion, and we re—examine our choices by looking at the potential of emerging technologies.