Suzanne Lee

Suzanne Lee is a Senior Research Fellow in Fashion at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design London and a creative consultant for fashion brands. She is the author of the highly successful Fashioning The Future: tomorrow's wardrobe (Thames & Hudson 2005), a visionary and creative exploration of where fashion and clothing are heading, the very first guide to the ‘future wardrobe' and the emergent technologies making it possible. 

Dr. David Hepworth of is co-director of Cellucomp, a pioneering company specialising in bio-composites based in Fife, Scotland

A key driver of contemporary textile innovation for fashion is the need to find new sustainable fibres and production techniques that contribute towards biodegradable garments and close the cycle of production, disposal and reuse. Many of today’s textiles are made from plant-based forms of cellulose such as cotton, hemp, wood or manmade derivatives. Bacterial or microbial-cellulose however, is produced when bacteria feed on a sugar solution – it is eco-friendly, biodegradable and sustainable.

Bacterial-cellulose is commercially produced for a variety of uses and industries; in Indonesia they flavour it with coconut water and eat it as a sweet dessert (Nata-de-Coco), while in Japan Sony Corporation compress it to form a super-sensitive hi-fi speaker membrane.

BioCouture clothes can be composted with food or waste vegetation in the garden.