A Dress Grown, Not Sewn: When Fashion Turns to Lab‑Made Fibers

In a world where the line between science and style is becoming increasingly blurred, a dress made from lab-grown spider-silk protein marks a quiet but powerful turning point. Recently featured in Vogue Business, this one-of-a-kind garment - crafted using Spiber’s “Brewed Protein™”- does more than showcase innovation. It invites us to rethink what fashion can be when biology becomes a collaborator.

We are used to fabrics that are woven from fields or pumped from deep underground. Cotton, linen, wool, polyester: each has a known origin and a predictable environmental footprint. But this dress? It was not grown on a plant or taken from an animal. It was fermented.

What is Brewed Protein™?

The fiber used in this dress was developed by the Japanese biotechnology firm Spiber. Since 2007, the company has been working to replicate natural proteins using microbial fermentation. Originally inspired by the incredible properties of spider silk (stronger than steel by weight, light, flexible, and biodegradable) Spiber set out to recreate similar structures in the lab without spiders, petroleum, or animals.

Their solution was to design their own protein at the molecular level. Using genetic code, Spiber programs microbes to produce specific amino acid chains - the building blocks of proteins. These microbes are then placed in fermentation tanks and fed with renewable sugars or plant waste. Over time, the microorganisms produce the desired protein, which is harvested, purified, and spun into fiber.

This is how Brewed Protein™ is born: not extracted, but cultivated. The process is not entirely unlike brewing beer - except instead of alcohol, the end product is a wearable thread.

Why Spider Silk?

Spider silk is a near-mythical material. Stronger than Kevlar, yet softer than human hair, it has fascinated scientists for decades. However, farming spiders on a commercial scale has proven impossible - they are solitary, territorial, and often cannibalistic. The only viable way to use spider silk in textiles was to mimic its molecular structure through biotechnology.

Spiber’s innovation allows this dream to take shape - not as a novelty, but as a scalable reality. The dress presented in Vogue Business, developed with the visionary designer Iris van Herpen, demonstrates that such materials are no longer locked in research labs. They are now part of couture.

Spiber creates the first commercially available jacket from emulated spider silk for The North face - The outer shell of the Moon Parka is made from synthetic, genetically modified spider silk

A Dress Without a Footprint?

The environmental advantages of protein-based fibers are considerable. Unlike synthetic fabrics made from petroleum, Brewed Protein™ is biodegradable. It does not release microplastics. The production uses significantly less energy and water than traditional synthetic fiber manufacturing. It also avoids toxic residues and finishes that are often present in polyester and nylon.

Spiber refers to this model as “biosphere circulation” - a way of designing products that naturally reintegrate into ecological cycles, rather than disrupt them. By feeding microbes with plant waste, the production loop becomes regenerative. And by ensuring the material breaks down safely at the end of its life, the fiber avoids adding to the global waste crisis.

Still, scaling up remains a challenge. The dress in question is not yet part of mass-market fashion. Its production is slow, expensive, and limited to advanced facilities. But Spiber is actively expanding, with new fermentation hubs in Thailand and partnerships forming across Europe. The goal is clear: make this technology available not just for couture, but for daily wear.

What This Means for the Future of Fashion

This dress is more than a design object. It is a sign that fashion is beginning to leave behind extractive logic. If successful, protein-based fibers could one day replace petroleum-based synthetics like polyester and nylon, which currently dominate the market. And unlike many plant-based alternatives that still rely on chemical processing, Brewed Protein™ starts and ends in biology.

We often talk about sustainable fashion in terms of recycling, upcycling, or reducing consumption. But materials like this suggest a different path: one where we invent better things from the beginning. Where biodegradability is designed, not added. Where production imitates ecosystems, not factories.

Kazuhide Sekiyama - CEO of Japanese biotechnology firm Spiber. Photo: Spiber (for Vogue)

A Collaboration Between Nature & Science

Designer Iris van Herpen, known for her fusion of science and haute couture, described the process as a collaboration with nature itself. The dress she presented does not try to hide its origin. It flows and shimmers with the quiet intelligence of the fiber from which it is made. It represents a different kind of luxury - one not rooted in rarity or excess, but in the elegance of harmony.

This is not the future of fashion in theory. It is the beginning of it in practice. From one dress, we are invited to imagine an entire wardrobe grown without harm, worn without residue, and returned to the earth without waste.

Glossary

Brewed Protein™: A lab-grown fiber developed by Spiber, made through microbial fermentation of specially designed proteins.

Spider Silk: A natural fiber produced by spiders, known for its strength, elasticity, and lightness.

Microbial Fermentation: A process where microorganisms are used to produce compounds (in this case, proteins) by feeding on plant-based materials.

Biosphere Circulation: Spiber’s term for a regenerative production model that integrates materials into natural cycles from beginning to end.

SOURCES

Vogue Business. “Can this dress save the world?” https://www.voguebusiness.com/story/fashion/can-this-dress-save-the-world

Vogue Business. “Biosphere circulation offers a future for textiles. How can brands get involved?” https://www.voguebusiness.com/story/sustainability/biosphere-circulation-offers-a-future-for-textiles-how-can-brands-get-involved

Spiber Inc. “Technology and Brewed Protein™ development.” https://spiber.inc/en/technology/

Wired. “The futuristic materials that could reshape fashion.” https://www.wired.com/story/reinventing-fabric-fashion-sustainability/

Wikipedia. “Spider silk.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_silk
Wikipedia. “Synthetic biology in textiles.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biology

Fast Company. “Spiber’s lab-grown protein could replace polyester.” https://www.fastcompany.com/90721500/spiber-lab-grown-protein-fiber-polyester-sustainable-fashion