Fashion: Fleeting fabrics

Joanne Baker

ARTS REVIEWED: -Wonderland

A. MAGUIRE

Imagine if last season's dress or suit vanished of its own accord after some expiration date. In a comment on our disposable culture, Valentino-trained fashion designer Helen Storey is using know-how from materials science to make a show of frocks that dissolve slowly in water.

Her couture creations, made from biodegradable polymer threads, are being publicly drowned in a gallery window near London's busy shopping hub, Oxford Street. Storey has long harboured concerns about our attitudes to waste and recycling, and during her career has woven plastic refuse bags and reused rags to make boas and evening gowns.

To realize her idea of evanescent products, such as packaging that disappears as its contents expire, Storey contacted chemist Tony Ryan, of the University of Sheffield, UK, after hearing him on the radio. Their Wonderland collaboration has produced new textiles and several patented products, including a water-purification device, a biodegradable bottle and orthopaedic shoes.

Ryan relishes the injection of wild ideas into his lab: "Helen really pushes the boundaries of our knowledge, but we share the dream of a world that uses its resources more responsibly."

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