Biotech Fashion Show Highlights Designer Fashions Made with Biotech Fabrics

TORONTO, ON (July 13, 2006) – Today, the scientific community had a front row seat at a fashion show that featured haute couture dresses made by using industrial biotechnology to convert corn sugar to biodegradable fabrics, providing attendees at the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing with an opportunity to see how their work is affecting the world of fashion.  The fashion show featured both ready-to-wear clothing and designer gowns -- including some made by top fashion designers Halston, Oscar de la Renta, Stephen Burrows, Heatherette, and Elisa Jimenez -- that were made with Ingeo™ fabric, which is spun from polylactide (PLA), a compostable biopolymer made from dextrose corn sugar.

The fashion show highlighted the diversity of biobased products made with industrial biotechnology currently available to consumers, including plastics, food ingredients, and fuels. The show also displayed ready-to-wear fashions from Linda Loudermilk, Teija Eloila, Kei Kagami, Nadia Fassi, Bagutta and many others, also made from Ingeo™ fibers.

Brent Erickson, executive vice president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s Industrial Environmental Section, began the fashion show by stating, “From the streets to the runway, industrial biotechnology is beginning to transform the fashion industry.” Erickson also noted, “We talk a lot about biofuels, but industrial biotechnology is really about much more than that.”

The World Congress, continuing through July 14, 2006 at the Toronto Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, is hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), American Chemical Society, the National Agriculture Biotechnology Council, the Agri-Food Innovation Forum, the Chemical Institute of Canada, BIOTECanada and EuropaBIO.

BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and 31 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.

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