Dress to the nines, in beer?

In the “you can’t make this stuff up” category of life, and beer, are some news items I came across today that I thought would be a fun Friday blog post. When you next have to dress up for an event, ladies, think wearable beer. No, this is not like a duct tape prom dress, this is a stunning, designer-conceived and made dress made with fabric invented from the beer fermentation process.

Designers Gary Cass and Donna Franklin created this stunner out of beer

Designers Gary Cass and Donna Franklin created this stunner out of beer. Photo by Nanollose (www.nanollose.com)

On cnet.com writer Amanda Kooser has this to say:

The Beer Dress is made from fabric produced by a bacterial-fermentation process. Scientist Gary Cass and visual artist Donna Franklin previously collaborated on a fermented-wine dress in 2012. That dress had a distinctive look to it, like it was made from Fruit Roll-Ups. The wine dress looked strange, slightly alien. The Beer Dress looks more like what we recognize as typical fabric, despite its unusual origin. You wouldn’t know where it came from if someone didn’t tell you. (http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/beer-wear-dress-made-from-bacterial-fermented-brew/). The fabric is called Nanollose Microbial Cellulose and the dress will be on display at the World Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy. I’m sure scientist Gary Cass and visual artist Donna Franklin, will be raising a toast to their ingenious design.

When I'm up for an Oscar, I'll wear this on the red carpet

When I’m up for an Oscar, I’ll wear this on the red carpet (Photo by Nanollose)

Short on cash and need a place to rest your head? Bad credit keeping you from getting a mortgage? Worry no more. On the petition website Care2 I discovered my next home, a beer bunglalow:

You'll need lots of empties to construct this

You’ll need lots of empties to construct this (Photo attributed to www.trendhunter.com)

Writer Melissa Breyer wrote for Care2:

Seriously? Many handmade houses employ the copious use of empty beer cans and bottles in their walls, like the amazing one pictured here, built by Tito Ingenieri in Quilmes, Argentina. He used 6 million beer bottles, can you imagine? All that newly-produced structural material foregone, all those bottles put to fabulous reuse. So maybe you don’t have 6 million bottles to recycle, or, a house to build? This method can be translated to retaining walls, patio walls, or perhaps a beer-bottle dog house. (http://www.care2.com/greenliving/9-surprising-uses-for-beer.html)

Watch Tito in action in this video on Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIx6f1DrQIo He invites anyone to come to Argentina to learn how to DIY.

Lastly, and maybe not the strangest idea, is the beer bath. From news.com.au is this gem:

A stress-relieving glass of beer at the end of a workday might not sound like new news, but what about as a remedy to soothe tired muscles? Beer’s carbonation and sugar content makes for an effective foot soak, relieving fluid retention and inflammation. Some people have been known to bathe in it! Bonus: the yeast in beer leaves your skin feeling super soft and nourished. 

If you don’t have a tub-sized amount of beer hanging around, the footbath sounds great! Meantime, what are your odd uses of beer?

 

Kate Cone

About Kate Cone

Kate Cone has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, is a freelance writer and the author of "What's Brewing in New England: A Guide to Brewpubs and Microbreweries," published by Downeast Publications in 1997 and completely updated in 2016. She has been a foodie since age 8, when her dad taught her how to make coffee and an omelet, lifelong skills for happy eating.