Spider Silk Dress

Stylish and bullet proof! What's not to like?

This new blue dress by Japanese company Spiber is woven from synthetic spider silk, which is five times stronger than steel, more flexible than nylon, and is extremely lightweight.

The electric-blue dress was created from a material Spiber calls Qmonos (from kumonosu, or "spider web," in Japanese). [...]

The high-collared cocktail dress, on display at the Roppongi Hills complex in Tokyo, was created to demonstrate the technology behind Qmonos.

The territorial nature of spiders makes them difficult to farm like silkworms. So instead, Spiber developed a technology that uses synthesized genes and coaxes bacteria to produce fibroin, the structural protein in spider silk. Spiber then uses technology it developed to culture the microbes efficiently and weave the fibroin into fabric.

Apart from clothing, Qmonos could potentially be be used to make film, gels, sponges, artificial blood vessels, and nanofibers.

Tim Hornyak of CNET has the scoop: Link


If this stuff goes into mass production imagine what will happen to the clothing industry.

Mix it with some cotton and imagine having a part of jeans and a shirt that will never wear out on you or slip a stitch. Owning 7 pair of underwear that will last you the rest of your life.
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The fabric looks wrinkled already. I'm worried about how difficult it would be to keep the clothing looking pressed. Will it take well to the heat of an iron or steam?
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I think it is very phantastic...
but i know that spiders eat their webs to recylce the protein...
Imagine wearing those cloth and having large nubmer of small spiders chewing on your dress..
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