Sustainable Fashion

Fashion designer Suzanne Lee shares her successful breakthroughs in creating sustainable fashion from tea and a particular fermentation process. Her six-minute speech 'Grow Your Own Clothes' describes the process Lee uses to create everything from dresses, to jackets and shoes from natural products. She creates her sustainable fashion line by brewing tea, adding sugar and mixing it in a bathtub with bacteria, where it will remain for two to three weeks. At this time, a material about an inch thick is formed on the top of liquid and is then removed to dry out before it can be used to create various pieces of clothing. While her sustainable fashion is not yet water-resistant, it is entirely sustainable, biodegradable and chic. Lee argues that engineers and scientists could potentially use a process similar to create a wide range of efficient and sustainable consumer products.