Wedding Dress or Weeding Dress?



For many brides, their wedding dress is an object to preserve and treasure for the rest of their lives. One designer, however, wants its wearers to toss it onto a compost heap the day after their big day. Designer Zena Holloway has created a $5,000 wedding dress woven from grass roots, rather than the plastics more commonly used in wedding dresses. She said she developed the idea after being horrified to learn that fabrics such as nylon and polyester release microfibers into the water when they’re washed, having a negative impact on the environment. Holloway’s company, Root Full, grows wheatgrass shoots in beeswax molds, which produce an intricately woven root structure. After about 2 weeks, the roots are trimmed off, leaving a mat of white roots, which are then dried and pressed into a fabric. The process — from growing the trees to making the material and fitting it — takes around 2 months. She says the dresses wear very well, as long as they’re kept away from the elements.