PLEB sat down with Noorin Khamisani, Programme Leader for Postgraduate Fashion at the Istituto Marangoni London, to discuss biomaterials in The Fashion Kitchen, a case study on integrating biomaterials into fashion design education, featured in Chapter 4 of The Future of Fashion Education – Speculation, Experience and Collaboration book.
In The Fashion Kitchen chapter of The Future of Fashion Education book, you discuss integrating biomaterials into fashion design education. Could you explain to our readers how this concept works in practical terms and why it’s essential for addressing sustainability?
In this project, we were teaching at a new university in Dubai, in that context sourcing sustainable fabrics was not straightforward. Building on work done in some of the other design classes, we (myself as a fashion designer and my colleague, Vanessa Gate, the fashion technician) collaborated with the Product Design Lecturer Mirko to develop a series of biomaterials for fashion workshops. It proved to be both a creative and empowering exercise, as students realised they could cook up their own biomaterials from simple ingredients and have so much control over their design process. Bioplastics are particularly important to explore as currently most plastics you can buy on the market for fashion use are made with fossil fuels and will never biodegrade.
Can you share an example of a successful project or case study where fashion students embraced biomaterials, including the outcomes and how it influenced their approach to sustainable fashion?
One example mentioned in the case study is a project created by a group of three students developed a gender and size inclusive jacket with a large section of removable biomaterial with a bubble pattern. They developed a technique to pour the biomaterial in liquid form into a mould to create the piece they needed so it would not need cutting. They took the garment out for a walk and created a film documenting the conversations that took place, the innovation in the piece was evident to people on the street as well as their educators.
A quote from a student in the study clarifies how it influenced their thinking around sustainable fashion: “Using biomaterials makes me think more about integrating sustainability within the design development process and the great potential it may have in reducing waste and unsustainable materials within the fashion industry.”
For readers unfamiliar with fashion education, what would you say is the most surprising benefit of including biomaterials in the curriculum, and how does it affect not just design outcomes, but also students’ mindset toward sustainability?
We know in light of the climate emergency that the materials used in fashion will have to change, through exploring biomaterials now we are preparing the next generation of fashion designers. Further, the design process beginning at the material level can support improved thinking around sustainability and lifecycle thinking, this became clear through our project. One student group created a biomaterial embedded with seeds and said “We explored how a jacket that one would wear when it rains, could change gradually, sprouting from seeds then decaying after, celebrating the cycle of life.”
Some of the chapters touches on the intersection of fashion and science. How do you ensure that students from a creative background can engage with the scientific aspects of biomaterials without feeling overwhelmed?
The best thing about biomaterials is that they can be made using everyday ingredients, and our paper is entitled The Fashion Kitchen, as they can be made in a kitchen. In industry and at scale certainly, they need to be made in labs with more scientific processes, but for individual projects with students, there is no need. The accessibility of making the biomaterials made it really fun for our creative students to work in the lab, and within a week when their materials were usually dry they could see the results of their efforts. Then through making they explored the performance of the materials, which in industry can be scientific, but in a class is very close to the practice of creative work with any materials.
How do you envision the future of fashion education evolving over the next decade? Are there any emerging trends or technologies that excite you and could become integral to the curriculum?
For me, all fashion education must consider the climate emergency, the current systems of fashion and the other systems it connects with are broken, as they can all be linked to contributions to climate change. We need to work towards something Emma Hakansson calls Total Ethics Fashions, where we consider fashion in a much more holistic way. In her framework, we prioritise the life and well-being of people, animals and the planet before profit.
In terms of technology, digital fashion tools certainly offer us options to test designs and ideas without the use of physical materials, but right now, we do not have enough reliable data on how much energy is used to create and store these digital files to make clear judgements on how much this really supports sustainability.
One last question burning question: Do the biomaterials disintegrate in the rain?
In general, no, they would not disintegrate in water, but of course, if they were left out in the elements over time, they would break down.
Images from left to right:
1. Zinah Issa, Mazyar Etehadi & Anoud Almulla – Bio Material Designs. Image courtesy of the designers
2. Zinah Issa, Mazyar Etehadi & Anoud Almulla – Multiple Lives Bodice. Image courtesy of the designers
3. Yang Kai Zang bio materials design. Image courtesy of the designer
Noorin Khamisani is a fashion designer, educator, and researcher, focused on design for sustainability, informed by two decades of professional practice. She was among the first wave of the pioneering ethical fashion movement in Europe, setting up the independent fashion brand Outsider in London in 2009. She continues to exhibit and sell her work internationally and lectures in fashion design and sustainability. Noorin holds an MA in Fashion Futures from UAL London College of Fashion and a BA (Hons) in Fashion Design from UCA Rochester. She is currently the Programme Leader in Postgraduate Fashion at Istituto Marangoni London, on the MA Fashion Design, MA Sustainable Fashion & Systems and MA Luxury Accessories Design.
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