Hey, Sugar!
A fashion show in Toronto featured the usual leggy, impossibly built models strutting the runway vamping for the ceaseless flashes of the photographers. Many famous designers, many unique creations, many models, many flashes. One thing different: the clothes were all made from sugar-based polymers.
The one-of-a-kind outfits created by big name designers Oscar de la Renta, Stephen Burrows, Elisa Jimenez and others included a strapless beige ball gown, a cream baby-doll dress with ribbon and sheer overlay, and a pink and yellow taffeta skirt with a silver recycled polyester bustier.
"There are three steps to get from the corn sugar to the polymer, which is used to make clothing," Christopher Ryan, chief technology officer of Natureworks LLC, the maker of the "biobased" fibre, said after the fashion show at the World Congress on Industrial and Biotechnology and Bioprocessing.
"First, the sugar is fermented into lactic acid, then that is converted into lactide," Ryan said. "Then lactide is converted into PLA, or polymer. It takes a matter of hours, but longer than that to get through our plant."
PLA polymer is most commonly used as a plastic in packaging for environmentally friendly products, but can also be used as a versatile fibre that can be made to have the appearance of silk, polyester, leather or elastic.
Natureworks, a subsidiary of U.S.-based agribusiness giant Cargill Inc., has branded its PLA fibre as Ingeo, and is the first company to use biodegradable polymers produced from renewable resources for commercial products.
Now why do I have this picture in my head of men asking their dates to take a walk in the rain?
World news | Gaius Thursday, 13 July , 2006
By psycmeistr, Thursday, 13 July , 2006 @ 8:06 pm
Heh… the possibilities are endless
By Gaius, Thursday, 13 July , 2006 @ 8:19 pm
Yes, they are….. Not that I’m advocating that or anything…..