19Genetics· UX Team

Genes for your jeans

DisruptionProbability 60/100

// A story from 2051

Today was the first time Bao ever touched jeans. What surprised him the most was not the roughness of the fabric, or the complete lack of fabric patches designed for specific body areas. It was the rigidity of the shape. He wonders how Grandpa ever felt comfortable in them. As he continues to clean out the attic – his grandfather having passed away from skin cancer earlier that month – he keeps sorting through objects he has never seen before in his life. They are mostly made from materials that seem weirdly crude to the twenty-year-old. Animal skins. Organic materials that required a lot of pesticides to grow, and from species that are now extinct. Bao organises everything in neat piles, ready for pick-up by the recycling plant.

Everything, except for the jeans. They intrigue him. On a sudden whim, he decides to try them on. Bao takes off his slim-fit trousers made from lab-grown fibres and puts on the old pair from his grandfather. He wriggles to pull them all the way up and it takes him a couple of seconds to remember how to operate the zipper. He’s only seen one of those in a video where kids born after 2035 were presented with stuff from the beginning of the century and asked to figure out what the item was for. Zippers and buttons had become obsolete by the time he was old enough to develop a sense of fashion, around the same time spray-on clothing became mainstream, so he never actually operated one. When it all works out, he feels a small sense of accomplishment.

He takes his first steps around the dusty attic in his grandfather’s trousers; the fabric feels odd and even chafes his skin a little. He wonders how badly this must have affected the skin of someone wearing these jeans for a whole day. The fabric clearly didn’t adapt to the shape of his legs, which Bao considers a basic requirement for any clothing item. It should fit like a glove and gently envelop his body shape automatically. How were the probiotics in the fibres of the clothing item supposed to do their work if they weren’t touching the skin?

Then something else hits him. The smell! Musty, old and even a little mouldy. Clearly these pants did not have any odour-regulating features. They probably required regular washing, wasting precious water and contaminating water streams with harsh detergents. Bao struggles to take the trousers off and then drops them onto one of the piles for the recycling plant. He puts his own pair back on and is comforted, feeling the soft tissue on his knees. Shape memory instantly brings the fabric back to a perfect fit. He knows that the sensors in the fibres will quickly pick up on the mild chafing on his knees and activate the nanoparticles woven into the knee patches. The balance of his slightly sore skin will be restored, and the irritation will soon pass.

Bao puts everything in bags with a QR code on them and takes the bags out to the street where they will be scanned and picked up by autonomous vehicles that will take them to the plant. When he steps out of the house, his smartwatch beeps. It's an alert from the weather towers letting him know there has been a rise in UVA radiation since he entered the house at dawn. Bao quickly puts on his face-glove. Not only does this perfectly modelled piece of face-wear protect him from the sun, it also monitors the pH balance of his skin throughout the day. On his way home, he wonders why his grandfather ever settled for clothing that did absolutely nothing for his health or comfort.

// The science behind it

Your clothes should do more than make you look good

After the 2021 virus pandemic, demand for clothes to be functional, comfortable, and enjoyable to wear increased. The ever-so-conscious user became more demanding with every new year, yet brands didn’t really take notice. That is, until their design departments reached a creative block; pressure from users forced them to turn to science, and to the invention of new materials and material blends.

The pressure was additionally amped up by the environmentalists, who deemed traditional organic materials like cotton or wool “no longer sustainable”, citing water shortage and the need to grow food on lands used for fibre production, while at the same time scrutinising synthetic materials like polyester and rayon. This ushered in a radical change in fashion, a shift from superficiality to sustainability and utility. In parallel, the cases of melanoma cancer rose, and skincare took priority over the frivolity of make-up. UV-A and UV-B ray fright resulted in the constant monitoring of radiation via smart watches and the inclusion of UV fighting ingredients in every single skincare item.

Fast forward to 2051, where the brief idea of merging clothing and skincare is now a reality, and it combines nanotechnology and probiotics. Nanoparticles are being used to add hydrophobic, self-cleaning, anti-bacterial, UV-shielding and wound-healing properties to the fabric; probiotics are there to bring relief and care to the skin. Most applied nanoparticles became those of a mixture of silica coated with copper or silver due to durability, antibacterial and anti-odour properties, and zinc oxide nanoparticle blends for flame retardancy and UV protection.

To make sure these probiotics were properly absorbed by our skin, clothing needed to be skin-tight. That’s when spray-on fashion became a thing. However, this type of clothing suited only those with little to no fluctuations in body weight (and body fat), which is why the sales of clothing with shape memory technology overtook that of the spray-on kinds in the late 2040s.

This new type of adaptable fashion was called ‘bodywear’ It became very popular with mothers at first, since it didn’t have to be re-applied like skincare and could be used for years. Because of its unique functions, an item of bodywear didn’t have to be washed as often, an argument that wasn’t lost on housewives with a limited budget. Nanoparticles and probiotics eventually became intertwined with new types of fabric, most notably spider silk. Because of its strength, the bodywear garments containing spider silk started being referred to as ‘bodyshields’. It was not long after that, that the same multifunctional garments for the face, aptly named ‘face-gloves’, were widely available in clothing stores as well.

More advanced pieces of bodywear were soon separated into several regions, with specific skin demands addressed for each region. For example, the patches we were used to seeing on the elbows of men's shirts since the last century, were designed as of the 2040s to bring extra nourishment and moisture to that area, as most people’s elbows are very dry. These patches were activated by sensors hidden within the patches, all the while communicating with the users’ smartphones to deliver them live skin stats.

Come on, will we ever really use clothing for our health?

Though perhaps surprising, the prospect of using clothing as skincare is already being developed. In 2021. Fashion designer and scientist Rosie Broadhead announced she was partnering up with microbiologist Dr. Chris Callewaert (a.k.a. Dr. Armpit) to explore the possibilities of encapsulating probiotic bacteria into the fibres of clothing.

We’re used to thinking of pineapple or fungus-derived materials as very advanced when the real material advancements stem from nanotechnology already used in the creation of nanomaterials. Examples of these materials used in this article have been researched for years, even though fashion has not caught up with them yet. An article from 2010 by Gerber et al. evaluated the effect of silver tricalcium phosphate nanoparticles onto Polyamide 6 fibres to build a reactive system against bacteria such as Escherichia Coli and Streptococcus Sanguinis, showing a killing efficiency of 99.99 or 100 per cent within 24-hour contact time. In 2013, El-Hady et al. proposed a new, flame retardant approach based on the use of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles for their application to cellulosic fabrics (cotton polyester blend).

There are also selected wound dressing compounds being explored for the creation of wound healing materials. Among the overall compounds of great importance, Silver Nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are used as antimicrobial in hydrocolloids, alginates, and hydrofibrous materials fabricated by electrospinning. Other relevant works focused on the preparation of wound dressing mats by electrospinning were presented by Hong and Rujitanaroj et al. in the late 2000s.

Fabrics we use today are far from sustainable – unlike spider silk known for its strength and durability. Artificial spider silk has been successfully created in labs since 2009. The production consists of the extraction of the spider DNA that creates the silk and its transformation into microorganisms that eventually form yeast. As this yeast is being brewed, it creates a silk protein. These bio-fabricated raw materials remove the need for animals or insects and are far more efficient.

Futuristic clothing pieces made for the face are reminiscent of the popular Korean sheet masks that bring instant hydration or relief to the skin. An upgrade from those masks are machines with which users can already create their own DIY sheet face masks. The only problem with both of those masks is that they must eventually be removed. Ideally, in the future, we’ll have face-wear or body-wear that will be hard to detect, providing the slow release of active ingredients throughout the day and not just upon – or shortly after – application. The detectability could be additionally improved or minimised by allowing users to have their faces scanned to create 3D moulded face-wear, much like Amorepacific already does for its users at their point of sales.

In 2013, Fabrican Ltd introduced spray-on clothing by presenting several clothing pieces that started out as a humble liquid. There have not been recent updates on the invention, but it’s not hard to imagine something like this being implemented into the future of clothing as skincare. Especially since we already have spray-on makeup.

A company called Myant is pioneering the creation of clothing that can monitor our every move. Some people refer to what they do as producing” smart fabric”, though they prefer the term” textile computing”. Yarns are paired with electronic sensors so that essential data can be captured from the human body. Another smart textile company creating similar clothing pieces is called Hexoskin.

The biggest challenge might be to create clothing that can shift, move and change temperature. Having a clothing piece that warms you when it’s cold outside, keeps you snug when you’re feeling in need of a hug, or changes patterns, sounds like a dream. Turns out designer Behnaz Farahi might be onto creating something similar. She combined 3D printing, shape memory alloy and computer vision technologies to make a top that moves, thanks to eye-tracking controlled movement. The top was inspired by involuntary body movements like pupil dilation, yawning or chills.

Changing the temperature should also become much easier. The brand Polar Seal creates tops that heat the lower and upper back on command, at the push of a button. Now, wouldn’t we all love a hoodie that could get warmer when it's cold outside or snuggly and tight when we’re tense, and that changes patterns based on our mood?

We have witnessed amazing advances being made in the field of fashion and nanotechnology, but their combined development and implementation is rather slow. Not only is it slow, but any attempts are quickly dismissed, as there seems to be a failure in seeing the added value in such innovations.

Take spray-on fabric, for example. Ten years passed after the initial hype, with no significant updates made to date. Additionally, some papers on nanotechnology and nanoparticles are almost twenty years old, yet we haven’t seen much representation of it in the field of fashion.

The issue with the spray-on fabric was apparent from the videos where the product in action was shown, often showcasing its benefits, but not how it would be removed. After removal, the person would have to have the skills to attach the two pieces back together, which was never demonstrated. On top of that, the clothing seemed fragile and not suitable for people whose weight might fluctuate, such as pregnant women. A great way to perhaps restart the conversation around spray-on fabric would be the introduction of spray-on, stretchy material that has the functionality and breathability of standard fabric.

Nowadays, we have amazing new organic fibres to work with, like pineapple and fungus, and soon spider silk will be within our reach, but the probability of those or more commonly used fibres such as cotton being intertwined with probiotics and nanotechnology doesn’t seem likely, as most probiotics have an average shelf life of one year – if they’re not in contact with air or water.

Nevertheless, it would be amazing to one day be able to wear a garment for a year without having to wash it. For now, we’ll have to settle for probiotic-infused skincare. Longevity of the fabric is the current problem of 3D printed clothing as well. 3D printing materials are far more rigid than those used in the making of traditional fabrics, which makes them uncomfortable and easy to break. Those that aren’t as rigid are still made of plastic - which really isn’t helping the scrutiny fashion is under regarding sustainability. Ultimately, 3D printed clothing has yet to reach anywhere near the standards of comfort users demand from their garments.

Face garments or ‘face-gloves’ are a bit more promising, as Chinese bathers can be seen readily wearing a perfect beach combination of facial sunscreen and a hat called a ‘facekini’ when visiting beaches. Making it barely detectable and mouldable to a wearer’s face, is the next step to making it closer to what Bao is wearing.

Although these ideas are not likely to wait for us in 2051, they’re to be closely checked upon and followed. Changes might be coming slowly, but they are usually radical when they eventually do happen, at least on a fashion scale. After all, who would’ve thought that we would eventually be printing garments, after the invention of the first printer in the 1800s?

All that is left to do to speed up the process of seeing these futuristic garments on shelves is for fashion houses to incorporate and hire scientists and microbiologists – with as much care as they do when hiring their creative directors.

// Sources & further reading