Blood, sweat and accessories: artist recycles bodily fluids for fashion

[June 21, 2018]    By Stuart McDill

LONDON (Reuters) - Struggling to make your fashion more personal? No sweat. A London fashion student can help you decorate your attire with crystal accessories formed from your bodily excretions.

Urine crystals grow on a pair of ballet shoes, as part of a collection by Alice Potts that imagines a future where accessories are grown from our bodily excretions, in the Royal College of Art Fashion Show in London, Britain, June 20, 2018. Picture taken June 14, 2018. REUTERS/Stuart McDill

Royal College of Art graduate Alice Potts showcased her quirky design methods with a pair of ballet shoes adorned with crystals formed from sweat and a fake fur featuring urine-crystals at the RCA's annual fashion show.

Potts, who has also experimented with blood, believed the odorless but stomach-turning materials, donated to her by fellow students, had environmental and health benefits beyond the limitations of traditional plastic or cotton.

"Instead of using plastic accessories to maybe embellish garments ... we can start like growing onto our garments these new materials and more natural materials," she told Reuters.

Potts, who kept her crystallization process under wraps, added that in future the concept could possibly be developed to create a bio-sensor to detect high sugar levels for diabetics.

Other environmental-thinking collections on display at last week's RCA show included a range of clothes produced without sewing any seams. Instead, a new weaving technique was employed, reducing fashion waste and challenging over-consumption.

The show, titled “A Walk Without a Cat”, featured dance performances and live shows rather than a catwalk and was held at 180 Strand, the home of London Fashion Week.

(Editing by Patrick Johnston and Alison Williams)

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