denimaize
BIOLOGICAL DESIGN, GRAPHIC DESIGN
💁♂️: Julia Bell, Alina Peng, Mengda (Cecile) Zhang, Natalia Cabalceta
⌛: 6 weeks
🏆: Top 9 Biodesign Challenge 2019
👀: MoMA NY, London Design Festival, Forbes, Parsons School of Design, UPenn Weitzman School of Design
Full case study here.
Ask
Your favorite pair of jeans used around 2000 gallons of water. In fact, the average American woman owns seven pairs of jeans. Denim is processed with harsh chemicals in unsavory labor conditions.
250 million corn waste piles up as husks in the US each year — the ones from corn covered in fungus have no use and so are burnt.
Insight
Corn and denim supply chains work as reflections. The problems with denim are pushed onto external countries and we create domestic problems with corn production.
What makes something waste? The corn smut fungus we disparage is a delicacy in Mexico and has no effect on human health.
Solution
A sustainable denim made from chemically retted corn husk fibers and microbial dyes, relaxed with enzymes.
The husks repurpose domestic waste. Microbial dyes are biodegradable, reducing eutrophic externalities and other pollution problems. Biostoning improves labor conditions and saves unimaginable amounts of water.
“In some areas of China, you can tell which colors are fashionable in New York and Paris by the color of the rivers”
You can see me, a proud mom, with my children.
