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Save Planet Earth With "Pollinator Frocks"

A British artist has made a prototype dress that attracts pollinators in the hopes of helping to prevent their decline.

You know how the bee populations of North America and Europe are mysteriously dying, causing a ripple effect that could potentially devastate our entire planetary ecosystem? Well, there’s something you could be doing about that, like wearing a dress. This might not sound like such an attractive prospect for guys, but for the ladies, would you wear a Pollinator Frock to help save the planet? Because that’s what British artist Karen Ingham has designed a prototype dress, with the help of entomologists, botanists, microscopists, surface pattern technologists, and print and coating engineers, to attract that part of the insect world that loves pollen.

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Part of the Day Wear collection

So how does it work? Well, the group scanned tiny images of what pollen looks like at a microscopic scale, then enlarged them and used them as the basis for the prints of their dresses in the hope of attracting endangered pollinators. Because it’s not just bees whose attention they want to garner, but also butterflies, forming the basis for the day wear and a night wear range to attract moths. Along with this visual stimulus, the unisex frocks will be coated with a substance that mimics nectar to nourish and further attract these insects.

And a night wear pattern for moths.

They don’t state exactly how these “wearable gardens” would help aid the declining bee population, presumably that by attracting them it would in some way stimulate their natural desire to pollinate, and in turn help regenerate them, especially in cities where flowers aren’t in abundance. It sounds all well and good, if you don’t mind accessorizing with live insects.