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Posted (edited)

I'm a Fashion Design student at Liberty University whose also on the speech team at my university. Last year, I gave an informative speech for competitions about using Kombucha SCOBY along with various ingredients such as tea, sugar, and water (Symbiotic Colonies of Bacteria & Yeast) to create a leather-like material that can revolutionize the fashion industry.

 

Not much research has been done about this process and I was hoping to learn more about it. Throughout the project, I would experiment with the process. For instance, I'd switch the medium (black tea, white tea, green tea, coffee, etc.) to see how the process would be different. This project would give me an opportunity to explore a field of fashion and science that I'm passionate about and be a good way of informing/educating others about sustainability and fashion. By the end of this project and research I'd also like to make a mini-collection using the materials.

 

Ultimately, I want this to be my Honor's thesis. This being said, I'm having a hard time come up with a research question/proposal. I can't seem to come up with a question(s) that would explain clearly what I want to do. Can anyone help giving me suggestions or help me come up with ways to wrap all these things I want to do in a good research question?

 

The following link is a short 6 and a half minute TedTalk describing this material for more background information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p3-vl9VFYU

Edited by Loujoelou
Posted

I don't know anything about creating leather-like materials. But I like reading a post about an idea that sounds original to me.

 

If the process you want to use is not well-described in literature testing it out and writing down a protocol of the process and the results already sounds like a cool project. If you need more depth then from what you wrote I see two more or less obvious routes to go (assuming the results are not well-known already):

 

1) Perform some standard tests on the materials and compare them with leather. Elasticity, robustness and water resistance could be examples. Being a fashion designer you will probably have a better idea than me about what properties are relevant.

 

2) Go a more theoretical way and make a comparison of the material's "sustainability" compared to other materials (like leather, maybe also others). I expect there are a variety of sustainability measures that could be considered: Total energy use or total use of drinking water for the fabrication are examples that come to my mind spontaneously. Or maybe just total cost of production (not in the greeny sustainable category but still a very relevant parameter).

Posted

Thank you very much for the feedback! It certainly is a lot more efficient than today's process of creating clothing and I'd definitely like to make that comparison. One aspect of this material that I would like to dive into is the fact that is also isn't water resistant. Kombucha-made fabric tends is very keen on absorbing water. Ultimately by the end of the project I would love to use this material and an array of dyeing techniques (everything naturally of course) and make a mini-collection for my university's fashion show. If you would like, I can post the link to a TedTalk from one of the two main Kombucha fashion designers that I've seen material from. If this helps, this explains a bit more about the material and the process!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p3-vl9VFYU

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