In the United Kingdom, designer/photographer Zena Holloway has created a wedding dress out of wheatgrass root and is showcasing the garment at the Chelsea flower show in London.
Holloway told The Guardian she was inspired to pursue sustainable design after witnessing the impact of plastics pollution while photographing the ocean. “I saw the growing amount of plastic in the ocean over the years and became upset about the materials we were using.”
She chose a wedding dress for the project because they are particularly wasteful—often being worn only once and languishing in the bride’s closet for decades. The garment was made by growing wheatgrass into natural molds and sealing the dress with beeswax. The result resembles bleached coral.
“The concept for this dress is a sustainable wedding dress,” Holloway said. “If they got married by the ocean, for example, she could sustainably trash the dress and … get in the water and all the fish would just eat it, and it would just become part of the ocean.”
The flower show is hosted by the Royal Horticultural Society. The event includes sustainable gardening awards.