No. 3 (2024)
Essays

You will never be me: Personalizing biofabricated handbags with user genetic material

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  • Isabella Alevato,
  • Stefan Lie
Isabella Alevato
University of Technology, Sydney - Australia (Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building)
Bio
Stefan Lie
University of Technology, Sydney - Australia (Faculty of Design, Architecture & Building)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-2701

Published 30-06-2024

Keywords

  • material meaning,
  • next-gen textiles,
  • fashion symbolism,
  • bacterial cellulose,
  • biofabrication

How to Cite

Alevato, I., & Lie, S. (2024). You will never be me: Personalizing biofabricated handbags with user genetic material. Fashion Highlight, (3), 36–47. https://doi.org/10.36253/fh-2701

Copyright (c) 2024 Isabella Alevato, Stefan Lie

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Handbags symbolize women’s emancipation and can evoke powerful memories of people and events. However, they are primarily made of leather, which is not aligned with consumers’ growing environmental concerns. As the next generation of women’s handbags should reflect women’s values and advancements in material science (The Women’s Museum of California, 2017), exploring ways to personalize next-gen materials could lead to greater consumer acceptance. Guided by the hypothesis that a biofabricated handbag can be personalized with genetic material to symbolize its user’s environmental concerns and display advancements in material design, this study started with secondary research and then progressed to material testing and prototyping as the main method of inquiry for investigation. The result is a handbag composed of bacterial cellulose and human hair that represents a potential use of user genetic material to personalize biofabricated products that carry psychological significance.

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