From Sea to Fashion. Seaweeds as Material for a Sustainable Transition

The essay addresses the reasons why fashion design is manifesting an increasing interest in the marine environment as a context where to identify new sustainable materials for fashion, focusing on the particular case of seaweeds. Through the analysis of some significant international case studies, the recent applications of a variety of biomaterials derived from algae are observed. This phenomenon is interpreted not only as a response to the emergencies of innovation and sustainability in fashion design, but also confirms the framework of a new materialism according to a posthuman perspective. Water shifts from being perceived as a natural element exploited and polluted by fashion into a place of making kin between human and non-human through the use of seaweeds. This is possible thanks to the collaboration of design, chemistry, biology and technology, that are orchestrated to redefine the expressive codes of contemporary fashion within a multispecies landscape.