Fashion Meets Innovation: Space Inspired Designer Made A Jumpsuit That Turns Sweat Into Drinking Water

For the past few months, five fashion schools have been working with the European Space Agency to find out what happens when space-age technologies and materials are mixed with couture designs. The results were then launched at the London Science Museum.

As part of a project known as Couture in Orbit, designers from the Fashion Akademiet in Denmark, the Politecnico di Milan in Italy and the International University of Art for Fashion in Germany and France were each assigned a specific theme, while the European Space Agency provided space-certified textiles.

The results aren't perhaps going to save the wearers from the hostile of space in their current form-that's what the space suits of the future are for. But as the space agency points out, the challenge was "to predict the future of fashion in designs that are desirable and practical, while showcasing their national cultures." Whether they've achieved that, you can decide.

Kamilla Sadol, a fashion student at Fashion Design Akademiet in Copenhagen designed a jumpsuit that turns sweat into drinking water. "This material doesn't exist yet, but the concept is to make sweat and moisture from your body turn into pure drinking water," explained Kamilla of the outfit she designed. Motherboard reported that she also explained that the conceptual smart fabrics absorb human sweat, which is purified in tubes dispersed throughout the lining of the fabric. These all lead to a small water-collecting pouch at the back of the jumpsuit.

The model, Phoebe Bunting strutted on the catwalk decked in the jumpsuit which can transform her into a walking, talking water dispenser. Along with Bunting to hit the cat walk were thirty-five museum staffers. The designs of their outfit included everything from a woman clad in a voluminous ruffle skirt to a man in sky blue with one hand enclosed in what looked like a gigantic light bulb.

Space-inspired designers imagine a jumpsuit that turns sweat into drinking water https://t.co/xBD7lHzlI2 pic.twitter.com/SfL68bwqx7

— Motherboard (@motherboard) May 28, 2016

According to Gizmodo, Rosita Suenson, ESA's communication manager said that a lot of what the space agency do is hard to explain, and they want to increase the interest in space. Since everybody is mostly interested in clother, the agency came up with the idea of a fashion show. "The aim was to focus on sustainable clothing that both looked good and had a function," she continued.

"The objective wasn't to have a Star Trek or Star Wars-like fashion show," she added.

Sadol said that her water-recycling jumpsuit idea was part-inspired by Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen's space mission to recycle urine into drinking water, and also by the fact that, on average, the human body produced up to 450 litres of sweat each year.

Sadol's concept was made up of a fusion of both normal fabric and small portions of materials provided by ESA. For example, she made the collar section of the jumpsuit out of a flexible sheet of transparent material, which ESA uses in its satellites. She also said that she hoped that the technologies applied to future space garb could find practical applications here on Earth. She pointed out that cited hot countries with water shortages as an Earth-bound place where these hypothetical clothes could be worn. Providing multifunctional clothes for regular people back on Earth was a concept shared by students from the Politecnico di Milano in Italy.