“Did I make you thrill with sweat?” says fabric researcher Alice Potts.
In 2018, Potts’ collection of alumni from london’s Royal College of Art attracted media attention and praise from industry experts who added British Fashion Council ambassador for emerging talent, Sarah Mower, for her sweat-covered sportswear.
Since then, her reports on cultivating embellishments for fashion have included tear crystals and, more recently, bioplastic sequins made from petals, vegetable scraps, and herb scraps.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Potts in Athens, where he had completed a scholarship to artistic studies at the Onassis Cultural Centre, jumped on the last flight out of the Greek capital to spend his confinement with his circle of relatives in the UK and put paintings on hold due to the threat of infection.”I had the worst nightmare of all time that there would be a moment like Jurassic Park where I would crystallize someone’s sweat with COVID-19, and then, in the long run, it would break and the coronavirus would start again,” he laughs.On a more serious note, he had planned two years of paintings, all of which were interrupted.
Far from taking a break from work, the pandemic gave Potts the opportunity to explore new concepts and reflect on the implications of his work.Inspired by the fear of the growing amount of plastic used for hygiene purposes, she began new experiments with hyperlocal bioplastics.”I had to make my bioplastics without going up or exporting or going to the coast to look for seaweed or seaweed.This propelled my practice.
This delight led Potts to see new opportunities for biological curtains.”It would be great to have a long-term formula in which the design was open source and yet the fundamental ingredients of each curtain were absolutely condensed into waste and use of what was manufactured.in this country. The bioplastic I made in Greece has a color palette and a recipe absolutely different from England because we have other waste and I think there’s something lovely [in that].”
As a non-public project, Potts used bioplastic brilliance to fix a bag.The result is visually striking and served as reminiscent of his time in the lockout.The new panels he has grown for the bag come from a combination of roses harvested in March., margaritas and hyacinths of April and May and marigolds of a friend’s lawn in June.”Many other people recycle things, but they use synthetic products where, in fact, this total concept of recycling new fabrics can be a smart way to introduce biological products into the system,” Potts explains.
Biological fabrics are presented as one of the many imaginable responses to fashion sustainability disorders and advances come with laboratory leather concepts, seaweed laces and bacteria used to create non-toxic dyes.the weight of classic herbal fabrics like cotton and be offering regenerative and biodegradable responses that do not require water or chemically intensive processes.
However, there have been complaints that some are not as environmentally friendly as they claim.Potts says this is the result of a rush to bring biotelae to market.The same quality as the original fabrics [are intended to replace].So there are many other people who started with bio-based fabrics, but then genetically changed them or added a chemical to make them more durable.
While Ms Potts believes that the widespread advertising use of more sustainable biomaterials is still many years away, she is willing to continue to advocate for the paintings that are being made in this space. She hopes that if anything comes out of the pandemic, it will be a new slow-fashion mindset.
“I believe that if we all seek compatibility in this fast formula and create a quick reaction [to sustainability], we never settle for small-scale achievements.People ask me how I can be so positive about the future, but the adjustments we’ve noticed over the past five years are the maximum radical adjustments we’ve noticed.
If bioplastics occupied it during this period, running with sweat remains their true passion.His samples now tested negative for the coronavirus and he would possibly return.
“I think sweat is the maximum underrated body secretion,” he says enthusiastically.”The fact that you can tell everything: if you have certain diseases, sugars in your diet.Many other people think sweat smells awful, but in fact., that’s what cleans you up and heals your scars.She breaks down the barriers of her work, either scientifically and fighting social stigma.
“I was embarrassed,” she says of her early experiences.” For a year, I went to the gym and covered myself with a plastic wrap, got on the Stairmaster fully dressed in several sweaters, then ran to the bathroom, scratching each and every one of them.little piece and picking it up in cans.”
While his classmates were busy in the fashion studio, Potts perfected his crystals in his kitchen.”[My teachers] said ‘Alice, you’re meant to make bags’ and I couldn’t stop,” she smiles.guest lectures by biodesign engineer Helene Steiner, her long-term career began to take place.He drew on his experience in reading chemistry, mathematics and psychology at school and a long-standing fascination with geometry and fractals.She also remembers, growing up playing tennis, observing the lines of salt that formed on people’s backs as sweat dried.She took her first reports to Imperial College London, which helped her expand the concept further and turn a concept into an interesting and charming result.
A partnership with celebrities would be a dream project: “Lady Gaga would be amazing.”But, of course, coming to celebrities and asking them to make them sweat is anything she fears.However, this can be just a big step forward in selling biological tissues.and help other people more comfortably with their port, because it’s not just the progression of fabrics that takes time.”Trying to interact with other people and introducing them slowly is the most productive way to go.I hope it starts to integrate into our system.”
Olivia Pinnock has been reporting on London fashion for ten years.In addition to interviewing creatives, reviewing the latest fashion trends and weeks,
Olivia Pinnock has been reporting on London fashion for ten years and, in addition to interviewing creatives, criticizing the latest trends and covering fashion weeks, has worked in marketing and sales for a luxury casual clothing brand, throwing them into some of the most prestigious in the world.In 2016, he took his interest in sustainability and RSE to the next point and presented The Fashion Discussions (@fashiondebates on Instagram and Twitter), a series of roundtables exploring the moral issues affecting the industry.Now talk about moral fashion, at various universities and conferences.She also teaches fashion communication at london college of fashion and London Metropolitan University.