Suzanne Lee (born 1970) is a

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

based fashion designer working on

fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fash ...

and future technologies. She is a Senior

Research Fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a p ...

Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Central Saint Martins is a public tertiary art school in London, England. It is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of sho ...

, the Director of The BioCouture Research Project, and Chief Creative Officer at Modern Meadow. Her recent

Arts and Humanities Research Council The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), formerly Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), is a British research council, established in 1998, supporting research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities. History The Arts a ...

(AHRC) funded project BioCouture looks at

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their biophysical environment, physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosy ...

and

sustainability Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...

issues surrounding fashion. She is working with scientists to engineer optimized organisms for growing future consumer products. In 2007 she published ''Fashioning the Future: Tomorrow's Wardrobe''. The book examines the work of the scientific researchers and fashion designers, such as

Issey Miyake was a Japanese fashion designer. He was known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances, such as '' L'eau d'Issey'', which became his best-known product. Life and career Miyake was born on 22 April 1938 in Hiroshi ...

Hussein Chalayan Hussein Chalayan, (; tr, Hüseyin Çağlayan ; born 12 August 1970) is a British-Cypriot fashion designer. He has won the British Designer of the Year twice (in 1999 and 2000) and was awarded the MBE in 2006. Chalayan is currently teaching ...

, and

Walter Van Beirendonck Walter Van Beirendonck (born 4 February 1957 in Brecht, Belgium) is a Belgian fashion designer. He is the head of the Fashion Department at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. He graduated in 1980 from the Royal Arts Academy in Antwer ...

, who are transforming today's science fiction into tomorrow's reality.

BioCouture

BioCouture is a research project using nature to suggest an innovative future fashion vision. Suzanne Lee uses

microbial cellulose Bacterial cellulose is an organic compound with the formula produced by certain types of bacteria. While cellulose is a basic structural material of most plants, it is also produced by bacteria, principally of the genera ''Acetobacter'', ''Sarcin ...

(composed of millions of tiny bacteria grown in bathtubs of sweet

green tea Green tea is a type of tea that is made from '' Camellia sinensis'' leaves and buds that have not undergone the same withering and oxidation process which is used to make oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China, and since ...

) to produce clothing. The idea is to ''grow a dress in a vat of liquid''. BioCouture has been included in

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on M ...

's annual roundup of ''The Top 50 Best Inventions of 2010''.

BioFabricate

Lee founded BioFabricate in 2014 to work at the intersection of design, biology and sustainability. They host an annual conference where businesses that biotechnology to develop material, fashion and clothing present work.

References

External links

Official website of BioCouture
*
Bio-Couture on Exposureroom, Video for the new Trash Fashion exhibition
at the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in ...

(archived in 2011) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Suzanne 1970 births Living people American fashion designers American women fashion designers BioArt 21st-century American women

BioCouture

BioFabricate

References

Further reading

External links