From the Lab: Emotional Iridescence

Close-up of Emotional Iridescence / Source: Emotional Iridescence

CelluloseCottonEuropeLeatherTextilesViscose

3 MINUTE READ

14 Sep 2023
Mayer Nissim

Iridescence is a remarkable phenomenon you can find all over the natural world. You can see it in everything from sparkling labradorite and Begonia leaves to butterfly wings and seashells – even in the clouds.

Previous efforts to mimic its light-bending beauty in fashion have relied on plastics, but bio-couturier Célina Camboni is taking us back to nature with Emotional Iridescence: A Living Colour - a cellulose-based iridescent coating. Of course we want 100% clarity on what the 5% that is not cellulose based, but this is a brilliant start.

Model wearing Emotional Iridescence / Source: Emotional Iridescence

Fabric in lab / Source: Emotional Iridescence

WHAT IS EMOTIONAL IRIDESCENCE?

Emotional Iridescence: A Living Colour is a bio-couture research project from Célina Camboni, dedicated to the development of a bio-based iridescent coating for textiles. The precise make-up of the coating is under wraps with a patent pending, but we can tell you that it’s made with a nano-fabrication process which uses over 95% natural and renewable Cellulose. It's applied to deadstock recycled fabrics and materials.

The vibrant Living Colour film has been tested on all sorts of scraps, including Cotton, linen, plant-based Leather, fermented leather, animal leather and Viscose. The final collection used damaged skins from Parisian brands and leather factory offcuts, all hand-sewn with recycled thread and other wasted material. Camboni’s next step is to use cellulose-based fabrics, in order to create recycling at end-of-life even easier.

Emotional Iridescence was developed at the GrowLab at Central Saint Martins where Camboni completed her MA in Biodesign. As she entertains positive interest from manufacturers, she is continuing her work in an industrial laboratory to develop the project. Should ongoing industrial laboratory scale tests be successful, Camboni plans to seek capital investment to facilitate large-scale manufacturing with the hope of attracting partners who share her values of sustainability and diversity.

Model wearing Emotional Iridescence / Source: Emotional Iridescence

WHAT PROBLEM IS EMOTIONAL IRIDESCENCE SOLVING?

Designers have always looked to the beauty of the natural world for inspiration, but it’s not always been easy to replicate the stunning phenomena that has evolved over millions of years.

Iridescence has always proved a challenge, and designers have historically used rhinestones or pearls to add sparkle effects. More recently, we've seen the advent of polyester-based holographic foil to add shimmer. It’s maybe no surprise that a material made from oil can mimic its iridescence, but with millions of tonnes of plastic clothes ending up in landfill every year, we need to look back to nature for our dazzle.

By using cellulose as a base rather than petrochemicals, Emotional Iridescence gives wearers that enviable look without costing the Earth. It’s not a dye, so you don’t need to use pigments, which means considerably less water used and less fading too. Camboni reports that the process is scalable and compatible with multiple textiles, and we hope that its commercial rollout will enable us to take plastics out of one more part of the fashion industry without losing any lustre.