Austrian designer Sonja Bäumel recognizes the body bacteria as a fashion inspiration and is showing her “(In)visible Membranes: Life on the Human Body and Its Design Applications” project.
This body bacteria fashion is a mashup of her philosophy, science and imagination to reveal how bacteria on skin can be used to create clothing.
Or, in her own words,
“transformation of invisible skin bacteria on our living body to visible bacteria on a body-external medium.”
The "Crocheted Membrane" reveals how bacteria would grown to complete fiber layers that react to a body temperature and change as needed.
This fashion designer turned scientist for ten days during an internship at a lab in the Netherlands to learn if there was any science to support her concept.
“I got some very good results from my experiments,” she says. “One proved that there is a reaction of bacteria to textiles, but my research also showed me that it is a long way until finally reaching my goal.”
