Technology to mass-produce lab-grown leather is on it’s way. The days of slaughtering animals for their hides could potentially be long gone. Tina Gorjanc, a recent graduate of Central Saint Martins in London, is working with a genetics lab to see how our own genetic information could one day be exploited.

For her exhibition “Pure Human”, she looks at de-extinction which is essentially the process of extracting genetic information from a source and using it to biologically program an already-existing skin graft. This could theoretically be transformed into luxury goods like a leather jacket or bag. Her project highlights that the ease of exploiting biological information is a concern and questions whether there should be stricter laws concerning genetic material.

She is using the late fashion designer, Alexander McQueen as an example. In his 1992 graduate project, “Jack The Ripper Stalks His Victims”, he claims to have used his own hair. Gorjanc applied for a patent that was “theoretically based on [having] Alexander McQueen’s genetic information as a source of a procedure”

David Whelan, cofounder and former chief strategy officer of the New York Genome Center says growing McQueen’s genetic information into skin could be akin to a found-object art. “What if we created a piece of art with a private letter from McQueen that we found in the trash? Or his cell-phone bill? While there could be a bit of invasion of privacy here, it’s not exploitive,” he says.

Gorjanc wanted to showcase how easy it was for someone such as herself to get a hold of genetic information of someone she has absolutely no connection to. She believes a person loses the ownership of his biological materials as soon as they leave his body.

We love Gorjanc for addressing some of the untouched issues that arise when the fashion and tech worlds collide. It triggers the importance to look into the protection of people’s genetic material as well as inspires us to aim for sustainable fashion.