We knew STEM was in Vogue, but how does it work?
Many people have seen the viral video of Bella Hadid at Paris Fashion Week closing Coperni's show, in which a dress is sprayed onto her body. The "misty liquid," as CNN calls it, was applied by Manuel Torres (the creator of Fabrican) and two scientists assisting him. The event is the perfect "fusion of fashion and technology."
Using polymers (natural and synthetic), Fabrican consists of short fibers bound and mixed with liquid solvents. In this aerosol form, the evaporation of these solvents is triggered once surfaces, such a skin, are hit. The binding agent and fibers used for Fabrican can change the texture of the material and create different pieces.
The dress Bella Hadid is wearing can be kept hanging in a closet, but, even better, it can be converted back into its original liquid and reused. Not only does Fabrican break technological and fashion boundaries, but it also brings sustainability into a new light. It is refreshing to see a large name-brand fashion company offer an alternative to fast fashion.
What does this mean for our everyday lives, though? This technology could be applied to other fields, such as healthcare, "where it has been used to produce face masks, protective garments, casts, and bandages," as CNN puts it. I imagine this technology could also be used for sustainable packaging, just with different fibers for a delivered package versus a wrapper for storing leftover food. This kind of technology reminds me of 3-D printing, except you make the material by hand and the material is sustainable. Fabrican opens up a new world of possibilities and influences cutting-edge innovation. Instead of loading a design into a 3-D printer and spending hours printing it, you could create your own sustainable design in seconds. As opposed to printing multiple iterations of a design and wasting material from a 3-D printer, you could create a design in seconds and revert it into a liquid if it isn't what you want or need.
Link to the CNN article: Bella Hadid's spray-on Coperni dress at Paris Fashion Week - CNN Style
Thank you for reading & welcome back to my blog after my hiatus due to writing college essays and applications. Stay tuned for more!