For the past three weeks, outdoor apparel maker The North Face and materials company Spiber have been touring a gold-colored parka across Japan. The prototype, called the “Moon Parka,” is a first—a coat whose outer shell is spun from synthetic spider silk.
“Not since DuPont first launched Lycra 40 years ago has a textile come along set to revolutionize the fashion industry,” says Suzanne Lee, founder of Biofabricate, a design and biotech conference, and author of Fashioning the Future.
Light, supple, stretchy, and stronger than steel, spider silk has long been sought as a thread for all sorts of uses, including bulletproof vests, wound dressings, and car materials. But spiders don’t lend themselves to industrial harvesting, unless by extraordinary means, because they cannibalize each other when confined together.
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