• Aradhita Parasrampuria: Fashioning Sustainable Textiles

  • Aradhita Parasrampuria

    Having grown up in Gujarat, India—a textile production region—Aradhita Parasrampuria, BFA Fashion Design ’20, MFA Textiles ’22, was familiar with the apparel industry. But upon returning to the area as a Parsons student to work in a textiles plant years later, she learned that the industry was heavily dependent on the use of toxic chemicals and began to see it in a new light. 

    A model wearing an elaborate black and pink garment made from fabric dyed using bacteria.
    Parasrampuria creates garments like this one by applying the knowledge she acquired in the BFA Fashion Design program and from her MFA Textiles program experiments in dyeing fabric using bacteria.

    The experience spurred Parasrampuria to think about safer alternatives. “Dye production stood out as an area ripe for innovation,” she says. “Vegetable dyes, which sound eco-friendly, are not as sustainable as they appear, and their range of color is limited.” During the junior year of her BFA program, Parasrampuria was introduced to Genspace, the world’s first community biology lab, where she explored the use of bacteria in fabric dyeing. After months of research and development, she succeeded in engineering bacteria that produced vibrant pigments. It was a novel and natural approach to creating dyes with minimal resources.

    Top: Petri dishes hold green colored beads and the natural materials used to make them. Bottom: Beads are shown joined to form a textile swatch and a green dress.
    Microbial pigments are used to dye beads in a spectrum of colors and help make the nontoxic beads compostable at home. Bead strands and panels can be connected to create garments such as the one shown here.

    Parasrampuria also devised a unique polymer using cellulose fibers from textile waste and algae—extremely fast-growing antimicrobial and carbon-sequestering organisms—to create natural embellishments such as beads that could replace the petroleum-based plastic varieties typically used in clothing, cosmetics, and other products. In 2022, Parasrampuria founded the start-up Cellsense, which aims to manufacture these sustainable bioembellishments at scale. Cellsense recently won the Earthshot Innovation Challenge and the Ikea Foundation's Redesign Everything Challenge; it also received a Swarovski Foundation Creatives for Our Future grant and an ACCEL fellowship, sponsored by Microsoft and Greentown Labs. Cellsense’s work was also featured at the United Nations Water Conference and was mentioned in connection with Forbes’ 2023 30 Under 30 list of innovators. 

    Top left: a close-up of bioluminescent material in a petri dish; bottom left: a close-up of the beads glowing green; right: a close-up of a model displaying a garment made from the polymer beads.
    Cellsense’s innovative manufacturing process enables Parasrampuria to create panels of beaded textiles in one step, eliminating the need for the laborious task of sewing beads together. The beads are made from an algae-cellulose polymer; jellyfish protein makes them bioluminescent.

    Parasrampuria’s career defies labels, bringing together the roles of designer, entrepreneur, inventor, environmentalist, teacher, and researcher. She credits Parsons with nurturing the interdisciplinary approach she employs in her work. “Parsons encourages systems thinking, which is the foundation of my work now,” says Parasrampuria. “My professors always asked, ‘What’s next?’ This led me to think outside the box.”

    A person in brown hair and lab gloves, shown in a lab setting holds up patterned beaded textiles.
    Parasrampuria showing some of her patterned beaded textiles.

    Her professors also emphasized the importance of understanding the practical applications of her work. “They encouraged me to make things that people want,” explains Parasrampuria. “It’s not just about sustainability; if it’s not beautiful, then people aren’t going to want it.” 

    A portrait of a model holding a black and white beaded garment against their face.
    Drops of Cellsense’s biopolymer can be deposited in customized arrays, allowing for elaborate patterns that would otherwise require hours of handwork.

    Parasrampuria’s work and new business are already benefiting industry workers and the environment while contributing to the broader effort to transform the fashion system as a whole.

    Cellsense.bio

  • Program Details

    Inspired by this work? Explore program features, curriculum, faculty, and more.

  • Related Work

  • Take The Next Step

Submit your application

Undergraduates

To apply to any of our undergraduate programs (except the Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs) complete and submit the Common App online.

Undergraduate Adult Learners

To apply to any of our Bachelor's Program for Adults and Transfer Students and Parsons Associate of Applied Science programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

Graduates

To apply to any of our Master's, Doctoral, Professional Studies Diploma, and Graduate Certificate programs, complete and submit the New School Online Application.

Close