Fashion in a can..

It’s trouble enough finding the right outfit in your closet – imagine if all you
needed was a can to spray it on.

Dr. Manel Torres, a former student of the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, is slowly getting us there. He’s created Fabrican, a technology that literally sprays fabric onto the body. Coming from a fashion background, Torres’ initial idea was to create clothes for the catwalk, but 10 years of toil and development have led him to realize the potential for many other uses beyond a new dress for Lady Gaga: spray-on bandages that are ready-sterilized, spray-on cleaning cloths or spray-on upholstery for cars and homes are just a few other applications, the latter two he’s discussing with commercial partners.

Torres created the formula for the spray with the help of Paul Luckham, a professor of particle technology at Imperial, offering him a 20% stake
in Fabrican Ltd (established in 2003) in return for working with him on the project one day a week. Torres owns the other 80%.
Luckham and Torres milled down old fabrics and mixed the fibers with a polymer, then added a solvent that would evaporate before the formula
hit a surface and turned solid on contact.

The technology has gradually improved and become relatively cheap to create. Five years ago the
“fabric” would fall apart in your hands when sprayed; today it has the feel of suede and can be taken off and even worn once more.
With patents granted in the U.S., Europe and Asia, Torres is now looking for those all- important commercial partners to help develop the formula and apply the spray
(no pun intended) en mass. One of the two main commercial partners he’s nabbed so far include
Novasol, a Spanish aerosol company that makes silly string, who Torres first contacted with his idea. “They laughed and said, ‘You’ll never make
fabric,'” he says. “Guess who has licensed me the deal.” Novasol is expected to start selling the
Fabrican spray, labeled as First Edition, in four months as an arts & crafts product.
The other partner is a household goods company, which is testing whether Fabrican can be used to
spray out a wipe that includes soap particles and has an abrasive texture.
Torres is most excited about what Fabrican could achieve in the medical field, as pre-sterilized gauze or bandages. Since the fabric is cold on
application, it could also be useful for burns victims.