Move over "Quiet Luxury," it's time for Quiet Innovation 🤫
Material science may be less sexy than the latest wearable tech, but it may be where the fashion industry needs to focus its attention.
While “Quiet Luxury”— that is, luxury that doesn’t necessarily announce itself as such—is enjoying its fashion moment, a material introduced during Paris Fashion Week may signal the future of tech-on-the-runway collaborations: quiet innovation.
Compared to the fashion-tech collaborations of the past—flashy, blinking, and in your face (or even on your face, as we saw with Google Glass X Diane Von Furstenberg)—the innovations of the future will be more subtle.
For its Summer 24 show at Paris Fashion Week, fashion brand Balenciaga enlisted GOZEN, a biomaterials startup, to create the materials for a maxi bathrobe coat (pictured above). This week, the startup announced they’ve raised $3.3 million in a seed round led by Happiness Capital.
GOZEN's flagship biomaterial, called LUNAFORM, is crafted by microorganisms and developed through a unique fermentation process. Its formation requires a nutrient-rich environment where microorganisms craft intricate, ultra-crystalline patterns. Following the introduction of natural agents, a three dimensional-material begins to form.
Unlike composite plant-based leathers that are assembled in layers, LUNAFORM is a singular, fully formed material, giving it a remarkable tensile strength and natural flexibility. Even more exciting, its material production process takes just 10 days and bypasses the need for tanning.
With the recent investment, the startup is progressing with plans to open a new facility in Turkey, and aiming for an annual production capacity of over 1 million square feet. It will also enable the company to transform traditional materials in the fashion, automotive, and home furnishings industries, and to fuel the creation of new materials.
“At GOZEN, we produce advanced biomaterials with the potential to unlock circular design. With this investment, we've shown that we have a path to delivering on that potential at scale,” says Ece Gozen, founder and CEO of GOZEN.
Material science is one of the most exciting areas of fashion innovation, as it pushes us past sustainability—which is essentially doing “less bad” for the environment—and towards regeneration. While LUNAFORM may not be as sexy or eye-catching as, for example, Adobe’s recently unveiled Project Primrose Dress, material science may be the area where fashion needs to focus if it’s going to sustain itself as an industry.