rentao_15
24th Sep '07 Mon, 23:41
:clap:Dissolvable dress - Height of throwaway fashion:clap:
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/3465/ndress199ls.jpg
This is the ultimate in disposable fashion. A symbol of our throwaway society - not to mention the stuff of male fantasies.
But, to the professors who designed this disappearing dress, it is a profound artistic statement about how plastics can be made to be kinder to our polluted planet.
Here is the world's first dissolvable dress, the culmination of a creative partnership at the University of Sheffield between the award-winning designer Prof Helen Storey and Prof Tony Ryan, a leading chemist, to show off new materials that can make consumer products less environmentally harmful.
The fabric is knitted from a clear polymer - polyvinyl alcohol - of the kind used in sachets that release detergent in washing machines. The dresses will dissolve and turn into a form that can be recycled as a bottle.
However, they break down so slowly that they can survive a sweaty party.
"In your lifetime you throw away around 20 tons of packaging material. We want people to think about that. But it has made us think more seriously about science, too."
The dresses are decorated with cleverly designed flowers that slowly give off a dye when they dissolve, making them move around like sea anemones in the huge goldfish bowl.
The designer was inspired to contact Prof Ryan when he appeared on BBC radio to explain how plastics can self-destruct, and she has worked with him to merge art and science in other products.
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/3465/ndress199ls.jpg
This is the ultimate in disposable fashion. A symbol of our throwaway society - not to mention the stuff of male fantasies.
But, to the professors who designed this disappearing dress, it is a profound artistic statement about how plastics can be made to be kinder to our polluted planet.
Here is the world's first dissolvable dress, the culmination of a creative partnership at the University of Sheffield between the award-winning designer Prof Helen Storey and Prof Tony Ryan, a leading chemist, to show off new materials that can make consumer products less environmentally harmful.
The fabric is knitted from a clear polymer - polyvinyl alcohol - of the kind used in sachets that release detergent in washing machines. The dresses will dissolve and turn into a form that can be recycled as a bottle.
However, they break down so slowly that they can survive a sweaty party.
"In your lifetime you throw away around 20 tons of packaging material. We want people to think about that. But it has made us think more seriously about science, too."
The dresses are decorated with cleverly designed flowers that slowly give off a dye when they dissolve, making them move around like sea anemones in the huge goldfish bowl.
The designer was inspired to contact Prof Ryan when he appeared on BBC radio to explain how plastics can self-destruct, and she has worked with him to merge art and science in other products.