A cloak made of lights sprouted on linen fabric. If vaporized with water every day, it produces oxygen and contributes to absorbing carbon dioxide. This is the project developed by Lou Garnier, student of the Modart fashion school in Lyon, who presented this garment to a national competition, where he obtained third place, and was invited to expose him to the WHO’s Next in Paris, one of the most relevant events for emerging fashion.
An active vegetable garment, which lasts up to five years
The cloak, created in collaboration with Orpée Buisson, has not only a “natural” aspect: it is literally alive. The seeds germinate directly on the flax thanks to the humidity held by recyclable tablets integrated into the fabric. This allows the cape to absorb co₂ and release oxygen, behaving like a plant.
The estimated duration of the boss is about five years, but requires daily care: it must be sprayed with water every day. At the end of its cycle, it is not thrown away: it can be buried and turns into compost, avoiding any negative environmental impact.
Weight is one of the critical issues: the cloak is heavy and not very practical for daily use. But the value of the project lies elsewhere: it is a concrete example of sustainable design, with a functional, biodegradable and circular approach.
Lou Garnier learned to sew in the hospital, in an equipped room financed by the Pieèces Jaunes charity association. During the pandemic, he received a car to be sewn as a gift from his parents and started making fabric masks.
Since then he has transformed a personal passion into a tool to intervene on environmental problems, linking fashion and sustainability. The vegetable cloak is not a futuristic prototype, but a concrete proposal to rethink the impact of fashion in terms of emissions, waste and ecological responsibilities.
The main characteristics of the vegetable cloak
It is not a garment intended for industrial production, but of an intelligent experimentation, which places the theme of the ecological functionality of the clothes. A useful contribution in a sector still too tied to polluting productive logics.
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