Move over, silk and cotton—Russia’s latest fashion frontier is bubbling up in jars of sweetened tea. Social media is abuzz with DIY enthusiasts crafting clothing from kombucha SCOBY, the rubbery biofilm produced by fermented tea. Dubbed "the leather of tomorrow," this microbial marvel is elastic, biodegradable, and grows in your pantry like a science experiment gone chic.
The process reads like a mad scientist’s recipe: sweet tea cooled to room temperature, a splash of vinegar, and a pancake-like SCOBY submerged for weeks. Seal it in darkness, and voilà—a material emerges, resembling translucent animal hide. "It’s like nature’s 3D printer," quipped one amateur bio-designer, whose kombucha vest went viral before developing an unfortunate resemblance to wet toilet paper during a rainstorm.
But this eco-fabric has Achilles’ heels:
Meanwhile, in a twist of fungal fate, Russia’s Taganay National Park unveiled a newfound scarlet "tulip mushroom"—a velvet-clad oddity that upstaged kombucha’s fashion moment. Nature, it seems, will always be the ultimate trendsetter.
