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Something between a couturier and a laboratory scientist, Emily Crane created her “Micro-Nutrient” collection almost entirely made up of gelatine and seaweed .
Her “cultivated couture” project is “sewn” in her deep-freezer: it was presented for the first time as part of the 2011 Instant Design exhibition at Milan’s Triennale Museum, in October 2010.
What is, exactly, Micro-Nutrient Couture? And what prompted the idea?
The idea for Micro-Nutrient Couture came from the premise of having zero resources from which to create fashion. I asked myself the question, “Without the current mass production capabilities available, what would a fashion practitioner do?” This project focuses on creating fashion using boundary-less techniques from the everyday: I cook, blend, culture and form ice bubbles as silhouettes, and through this unique process and development of new materiality, I’ve laid an innovative creative foundation for future fashion design. Fashion is no longer a thing of simple beauty, but also of nutrition.
And what kinds of “ingredients” do you use?
I experiment with materials that occur naturally when cooked up from edible ingredients including gelatines, kappa carrageenan, agar-agar sea vegetable, water, natural flavour extracts, glycerine, food colouring and lusters, this is high-tech kitchen couture.
Who are you designing for?
I consider my pieces “couture” and, hence, “luxury”, because they are formed around the body so they are tailored to each individual, making them couture items. They aren’t meant to be worn on a daily basis, each piece is there to provoke and question the processes of our current fashion cycles.
When asked about her future projects, Emily Crane became mysterious. «I’m actually doing some very exciting work right now. But it’s for a company and I’m not at liberty to talk about it at the moment...»
For more information about Emily Crane and her experimental fashion, check out her website.
Photo courtesy Emily Crane
