Millions of fans choose to dress like their idols. Others buy outfits from the multitude of clothing lines or cosmetic ranges endorsed or designed by Hollywood stars. But would you — could you — ever wear a leather jacket or carry a handbag containing their DNA?
The Central Saint Martins graduate Tina Gorjanc believes that advances in tissue-engineering technology could create a highly lucrative and hitherto untapped niche within the luxury market. Last month, she unveiled Pure Human , a range of leather prototypes that she theorizes could be grown from DNA extracted from hair samples of the fashion designer
Alexander McQueen .
“Pure Human is a critical design project that also highlights the major legal loopholes around the protection of biological information, particularly in Great Britain,” Ms. Gorjanc said at her end-of-year show
The 26-year-old, originally from Slovenia, was standing near her mock-up collection of stylish biker jackets and totes, at this stage made out of pigskin. The flesh-toned pieces bore freckles, sunburn and tattoo etchings that matched those once found on Mr. McQueen’s body. A lock of his hair, which came from strands that Mr. McQueen had sewn into items in his 1992 Central Saint Martins graduate collection, entitled “Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims,” and skinlike samples from earlier laboratory tests were encased in glass cabinets close by.
Though Ms. Gorjanc cannot patent Mr. McQueen’s DNA itself, she can apply to patent his genetic information samples as the source for a procedure that would result in laboratory-grown leather made from human tissue. This involves taking Mr. McQueen’s DNA from a hair sample, then transplanting it into
stem cells and then multiplying those cells.
She filed that application in May and is now applying for a second patent, this time for the process of extraction itself (not source-dependent) to bolster the future development of the project.
“If a student like me was able to patent a material extracted from Alexander McQueen’s biological information, and there was no legislation to stop me, we can only imagine what big corporations with bigger funding are going to be capable of doing in the future,” Ms. Gorjanc said.
She added that the Human Tissue Act , passed in Britain in 2004, which regulates the removal, storage and use of bodily tissue, currently relates to the handling of human genetic materials for medical but not commercial purposes.
Kering, the French luxury group that owns the Alexander McQueen brand, is “aware of the project,” with several McQueen employees coming to see the presentation at the Central Saint Martins campus in Kings Cross, Ms. Gorjanc said. According to an Alexander McQueen spokesman, “Alexander McQueen was not approached by the designer about this project and we do not endorse it.”
Friends and former employees of Mr. McQueen, who committed suicide in 2010, told Ms. Gorjanc that the project was the sort of provocative experimentation he would have enjoyed and encouraged.
“I know many people have been made uncomfortable by the work I’ve been doing, calling it Frankenfashion, but I think I am prompting the right sort of questions for this industry in the 21st century,” Ms. Gorjanc said. “The demand for personalized and unique, rarefied product is only getting greater and greater. So is obsession with celebrity, not to mention advances in biotechnology, could change the way we manufacture garments and their fabrics forever.”
Ms. Gorjanc pointed to the Brooklyn-based company Modern Meadow , which “grows” biofabricated leather in labs from collagen proteins found in living cells, bypassing animal slaughter in a bid to a create a more sustainable supply chain, as an example of the growing convergence between biotechnology and the fashion world.
Modern Meadow recently raised $40 million in another round of funding as it seeks to become a top source of leather for the world’s largest accessories houses. But at this stage, Ms. Gorjanc said that no part of the Pure Human project is for sale (not least because her patent applications are still pending).
“Eventually perhaps this showcased range could go into a gallery, or hands of collectors, but they aren’t intended for commercial use,” she said. “At this stage, they are purely to promote the possible application of the technology. The purpose of using Alexander McQueen’s genetic information in my patent is to show that the products made from using him as a source — or indeed from anyone — can be patented in the first place.”
According to Hugh Devlin, a partner at the law firm Withers Worldwide in London who specializes in advising brands in the fashion and luxury sector, such genetic design work could run into problems within Britain on public morality grounds, or if donors did not give informed consent for the use of their cells.
“One of the issues with living in a country like the U.K. is that the courts can step in to opine in the event that existing legislation has not addressed something,” he wrote in an email, adding that there could also be trademark issues if Ms. Gorjanc were to try to use the name of the source of the cells as a marketing element.
In Britain, and more widely in Europe, the European Union Tissue and Cells Directives was set up to establish a joint approach to the regulation of tissues and cells across the Continent.
But in the United States, existing legislation and court precedent are inconsistent when it comes to the issue of profit from human body product. Any ownership you may have in your tissues vanishes when they are removed from your body, with or without consent, despite a raging battle among scientists, lawyers, disgruntled patients and their families.
But the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects , a.k.a. the Common Rule, requires that scientists tell research participants that they can withdraw from a study at any time without penalty (this does not help, obviously, with anyone who is dead).
As it happens, Ms. Gorjanc’s is not the first apparent fashion initiative at the intersection of trend-based luxury and biology.
Human Leather , a British-based company, claims to create products from donated human skin “for a small but highly discerning clientele,” with prices ranging from 9,000 euros ($9,950) for a wallet to 18,000 euros for a pair of shoes. But given that the website registrant is anonymous, there are allegations that the site may be a hoax. Ms. Gorjanc, however, is not joking.
The Central Saint Martins graduate Tina Gorjanc believes that advances in tissue-engineering technology could create a highly lucrative and hitherto untapped niche within the luxury market. Last month, she unveiled Pure Human , a range of leather prototypes that she theorizes could be grown from DNA extracted from hair samples of the fashion designer
Alexander McQueen .
“Pure Human is a critical design project that also highlights the major legal loopholes around the protection of biological information, particularly in Great Britain,” Ms. Gorjanc said at her end-of-year show
The 26-year-old, originally from Slovenia, was standing near her mock-up collection of stylish biker jackets and totes, at this stage made out of pigskin. The flesh-toned pieces bore freckles, sunburn and tattoo etchings that matched those once found on Mr. McQueen’s body. A lock of his hair, which came from strands that Mr. McQueen had sewn into items in his 1992 Central Saint Martins graduate collection, entitled “Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims,” and skinlike samples from earlier laboratory tests were encased in glass cabinets close by.
Though Ms. Gorjanc cannot patent Mr. McQueen’s DNA itself, she can apply to patent his genetic information samples as the source for a procedure that would result in laboratory-grown leather made from human tissue. This involves taking Mr. McQueen’s DNA from a hair sample, then transplanting it into
stem cells and then multiplying those cells.
She filed that application in May and is now applying for a second patent, this time for the process of extraction itself (not source-dependent) to bolster the future development of the project.
“If a student like me was able to patent a material extracted from Alexander McQueen’s biological information, and there was no legislation to stop me, we can only imagine what big corporations with bigger funding are going to be capable of doing in the future,” Ms. Gorjanc said.
She added that the Human Tissue Act , passed in Britain in 2004, which regulates the removal, storage and use of bodily tissue, currently relates to the handling of human genetic materials for medical but not commercial purposes.
Kering, the French luxury group that owns the Alexander McQueen brand, is “aware of the project,” with several McQueen employees coming to see the presentation at the Central Saint Martins campus in Kings Cross, Ms. Gorjanc said. According to an Alexander McQueen spokesman, “Alexander McQueen was not approached by the designer about this project and we do not endorse it.”
Friends and former employees of Mr. McQueen, who committed suicide in 2010, told Ms. Gorjanc that the project was the sort of provocative experimentation he would have enjoyed and encouraged.
“I know many people have been made uncomfortable by the work I’ve been doing, calling it Frankenfashion, but I think I am prompting the right sort of questions for this industry in the 21st century,” Ms. Gorjanc said. “The demand for personalized and unique, rarefied product is only getting greater and greater. So is obsession with celebrity, not to mention advances in biotechnology, could change the way we manufacture garments and their fabrics forever.”
Ms. Gorjanc pointed to the Brooklyn-based company Modern Meadow , which “grows” biofabricated leather in labs from collagen proteins found in living cells, bypassing animal slaughter in a bid to a create a more sustainable supply chain, as an example of the growing convergence between biotechnology and the fashion world.
Modern Meadow recently raised $40 million in another round of funding as it seeks to become a top source of leather for the world’s largest accessories houses. But at this stage, Ms. Gorjanc said that no part of the Pure Human project is for sale (not least because her patent applications are still pending).
“Eventually perhaps this showcased range could go into a gallery, or hands of collectors, but they aren’t intended for commercial use,” she said. “At this stage, they are purely to promote the possible application of the technology. The purpose of using Alexander McQueen’s genetic information in my patent is to show that the products made from using him as a source — or indeed from anyone — can be patented in the first place.”
According to Hugh Devlin, a partner at the law firm Withers Worldwide in London who specializes in advising brands in the fashion and luxury sector, such genetic design work could run into problems within Britain on public morality grounds, or if donors did not give informed consent for the use of their cells.
“One of the issues with living in a country like the U.K. is that the courts can step in to opine in the event that existing legislation has not addressed something,” he wrote in an email, adding that there could also be trademark issues if Ms. Gorjanc were to try to use the name of the source of the cells as a marketing element.
In Britain, and more widely in Europe, the European Union Tissue and Cells Directives was set up to establish a joint approach to the regulation of tissues and cells across the Continent.
But in the United States, existing legislation and court precedent are inconsistent when it comes to the issue of profit from human body product. Any ownership you may have in your tissues vanishes when they are removed from your body, with or without consent, despite a raging battle among scientists, lawyers, disgruntled patients and their families.
But the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects , a.k.a. the Common Rule, requires that scientists tell research participants that they can withdraw from a study at any time without penalty (this does not help, obviously, with anyone who is dead).
As it happens, Ms. Gorjanc’s is not the first apparent fashion initiative at the intersection of trend-based luxury and biology.
Human Leather , a British-based company, claims to create products from donated human skin “for a small but highly discerning clientele,” with prices ranging from 9,000 euros ($9,950) for a wallet to 18,000 euros for a pair of shoes. But given that the website registrant is anonymous, there are allegations that the site may be a hoax. Ms. Gorjanc, however, is not joking.
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