NACKTHEIT KUBISMUS–JD Annual Design Awards 2019 | Fashion Design

“If you really want to rethink how you make a piece of clothing, imagine growing a dress in a vat of liquid with bacteria. Unlike any traditional textile process this is closer to brewing beer or growing food.”

—- SUZANNE LEE —-

Designer Merlin Abraham’s collection, Nacktheit Kubismus in German stands for nudity in cubism and was inspired by the bacteria called kombucha. The collection is a line of experimental avant garde.

Kombucha is a fermented tea drink made with the use of symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast called scoby. It is known to have health benefits and is also known to lower the blood sugar level in diabetic patients. The designer has used the survival medium of the bacteria in fashion technology. As the theme is based on nudity, the dried scoby attained from culturing and processing, was used in the garments. Since it is transparent in nature, it correlates to the nudity of the theme. Dried scoby has the ability to hold natural fabric colour permanently which means the scoby can be dyed to any desired colour. However, our weather is not favourable to culture scoby and it affects the growth of the bacteria hence the quality of the scoby can vary. Hence, the designer had to find an alternative method to give life to her inspiration through her garments and hence used kombucha tea to dye the fabric and it turned out permanent fabric colours. Kombucha is eco-friendly it does not cause any harm to humans and nature.