Australian Students Ferment Clothing Materials With Yeast

Students from the fashion department of QUT in Australia are adopting a completely new way to make clothing materials, a sustainable material, and have shown their research results to the media recently.

This is a fermentation process similar to beer brewing or making yeast dough, and the yeast medium is placed in a culture dish to form a kind of curd like substance, which forms a new kind of clothing material.

In the laboratory of Queensland state library, students from Queensland University of science and technology use coffee, tea, red wine and syrup to carry out experiments.

Dean Brough, a lecturer in his own fashion studio, said the production process is both fashionable and forward-looking.

He said, "this process is horrible and disgusting.

Yeast medium is wet and sticky, and it may taste pungent, but when this material is made into clothes, it will be very exciting.

Whether it is tea, coffee, red wine or syrup, it can be used as food for yeast culture, and the materials obtained from different foods have different characteristics.

Braff said that the material formed by the fermentation process is close to the skin texture. After a week of drying process, the moisture is evaporated and the material itself becomes thinner.

Nevertheless, the students remained intact after they were torn down in the washing machine, proving that the material was very strong.

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Alice Payne, a lecturer at Queensland University of science and technology, said students carried out experiments on new materials, such as coloring the yeast medium, or staining the medium.

The smell of the process is very much like the flavor of beer fermentation. Although the flavor is not good, the final result is just like the return of wine, and the final product has no peculiar smell.

Braff said that the traditional clothing industry will waste 20% to 39% fiber in the process of making garments with fiber materials.

A student from the University of technology in Queensland, Australia, said she was fascinated by such a living clothing material.

By the end of October, the school will display garments made of this material at The Edge.