Another new month, another new experimental garment from the inimitable creative apparel powerhouse that is VolleBak… except this time they haven’t made a hoodie that glows, or can be worn on Mars, or is made from graphene or carbon fiber. This time they’ve created a garment that doesn’t consciously last thousands of years, but rather, turns into worm-food when you’re done wearing it. VolleBak’s bizzarely eco-friendly shirt uses a never-seen-before one-of-a-kind yarn made from pulped eucalyptus, spruce, and beech, along with a print that’s created using the world’s most abundant flora… algae!

“The only thing different about this T-shirt is that it grew in soil and water, and that’s where it’s designed to end up too. All you need to do is remember to compost it at the end of its life. Here it will biodegrade with them, turn into soil, and help new plants to grow,” explains Vollebak co-founder, Steve Tidball. The yarn is produced using wood-pulp from sustainably managed forests, while the green print on it is derived from algae grown in a bioreactor, before being passed through a filter and dried to form a powder that’s turned into ink. Since algae can’t survive outside water, the print technically isn’t ‘living’, and will fade over time like a patina, making each shirt unique. When you’re done wearing the shirt, just bury it underground and it completely biodegrades in 12 weeks, turning into compost that can then grow new trees. Sustainable fashion, y’all!

Designer: VolleBak