Disappearing Wedding Gown

Go from the wedding reception to the honeymoon without ever changing your clothes!

An unlikely collaboration between engineering and fashion design students at the Sheffield Hallam University resulted in a matrimonial eco statement.

The students worked together to create a dissolvable wedding gown that completely defys our more traditional notions of the "white dress". The gown can be transformed into five different pieces. The initial full white dress goes through each stage becoming slimmer and more formfitting until it finally becomes a bodice lingerie piece. The five different dresses are currently on display at the University’s Furnival Gallery.

The dissolvable wedding gowns were created in response to the growing number of clothes being placed in landfills. Due to the ever changing fashion industry and the growth of “value retailers” the price of clothing in the UK has decreased 25%, resulting in a 40% increase in the amount of clothing purchased each year. Needless to say, clothing has become one of the UK’s largest waste products. Almost 74% of the two million tons of clothes bought every year ends up in landfills.

"The project is a union between art and technology which explores the possibilities of using alternative materials for our clothing. The wedding gown is perhaps one of the most iconic and symbolic garments in humanity's wardrobe and represents the challenges of 'throwaway fashion'.

"In order to reduce fashion's impact on the environment, the fashion industry must begin to challenge conventional attitudes and practices. The exhibition demonstrates what could be possible when design and scientific innovation combine forces." ~Jane Blohm, a lecturer from the Sheffield Hallam University.