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South China Morning Post

This designer dressed Chappell Roan and Reneé Rapp with biomaterials

At her kitchen stove, fashion designer Caroline Zimbalist looks like an alchemist at work as she stirs a pot full of corn starch and a thickener made from seaweed. The peppermint-scented mixture glitters as she carefully pours it into silicone moulds of hearts and leaves. When the material hardens, Zimbalist will stitch it into unique, made-to-order dresses that she sells on her website. She hopes her designs, which have been worn by celebrities including Chappell Roan, will put a spotlight on materials that are not sourced from planet-polluting fossil fuels such as oil. 'It's almost like a vessel to show the world,' she says. Fashion designer Caroline Zimbalist poses in her studio in New York. Photo: AP Other small-scale designers are testing out tapioca, gelatin and other kitchen-shelf ingredients. Meanwhile, big names such as Adidas and Hermès have experimented with mushroom leather, while the Lycra brand is incorporating a new, largely corn-based material into stretch fabric.