Bold fashion statements on the red carpet have turned a lot of heads this year, with Emily Ratajkowski and others boasting risqué see-through dresses at the Oscars and Hari Nef recently touting the viral knife dress at the premiere of Barbie.
Czech actress Anna Geislerová made her own bubbly fashion statement at the opening of the 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival earlier this month, but it was the story behind her dress that turned heads.
Perhaps the most Czech gown to ever grace the red carpet, Geislerová wore a one-of-a-kind dress made from beer provided iconic Czech brewery Pilsner Urquell. Designed by Jakub Polanka, the dress was created from a unique organic material derived from the beer over a months-long process.
“I feel honored that it could have been me. The entire preparation of the project must have taken an awfully long time, there was an exceptional idea behind it,” Geislerová told reporters at this year’s festival in Karlovy Vary.
“I am excited about the collaboration with Pilsner Urquell. If it was someone else, I would absolutely envy the person in question. I appreciate it very much.”
The creation of the dress was no easy feat. It took three months of work at Australian biotech company Nanollose’s laboratories to produce 15 meters of distinctive organic fabric, resembling leather, from the Czech beer. Approximately 300 liters of Pilsner Urquell beer were used in the creation of the dress.
A complex fermentation technique involved converting substances in the beer into microbial cellulose, a cotton-like natural polymer. Once the material was synthesized and cleaned, the fabric was given to leading Czech designer Polanka to create the unique dress.
“What we did is we took the pilsner beer and we fermented that with our bacteria,” Nanollose’s Dr. Wayne Best told Ragtrader. “So the bacteria ferment the beer, and they produce this material called microbial cellulose, which we then harvested and converted into a leather-like material.”
“And they then took that leather-like material and used that as part of the base and some of the decorations in the dress.”
For Nanollose, the ultimate goal is to produce sustainable fabrics for use in textiles from waste materials. While the dress made from Pilsner Urquell was a unique endeavor, it also served as a learning experience for the company, allowing them to refine and improve the processing of the vegan leather-like material.
“We learned an awful lot,” Dr. Best said regarding the creation of the beer dress. “It’s improved our understanding of the material and how to process it and so forth. I mean, obviously, beer is not the ultimate waste material we’d be using. That was obviously for PR purposes. But we learned a lot about the processing and how to make the right texture and so forth of the material.”
Unlike many vegan leathers on the market that contain plastic or backing material, Nanollose aims to create a biodegradable and sustainable vegan leather that is versatile and environmentally friendly. Their beer dress adorned by Geislerová at this year’s Karlovy Vary festival serves as a testament to the company’s goal of a sustainable future for fashion.
