17th century shipwreck woven into dress (seriously)
Popular Science...
Pirate treasure and shiny coins typically come to mind when an old shipwreck is discovered. These bits of maritime history are usually studied, preserved, and placed in a museum or private collection—not made into a dress worthy of Paris Fashion Week.
Using the surplus wood from a shipwreck dating back to the 1600s, archeologists, chemists, and textile experts in Finland turned the raw material into a textile fiber. They then spun the fibers into a workable yarn and knit it into a dress with the help of AI-assisted technology. The Shipwreck Dress represents over two years of collaboration between scientists and designers. This unique piece of clothing is also an opportunity to bring history to new audiences.
“Underwater cultural heritage is often invisible, but the Shipwreck Dress brings it into people’s everyday environments,” Minna Koivikko, a maritime archaeologist with the Finnish Heritage Agency, said in a statement. “It’s almost like a spokesperson for history—with a modern twist.”
The Hahtiperä wreck
The wreckage of a 17th century cargo ship was discovered in the central Finnish town of Oulu in 2019. The ship was made from tree timber dating back to 1684 and the unnamed vessel was eventually called the Hahtiperä wreck. The wood for the vessel grew in the forests of Ostrobothnia in southwest Finland in the 17th century.
Some of the leftover pieces of wood risked ending up thrown in the trash after years of conservation work, leaving archeologists wondering how to give the wood a second life in the 21st century.
“The wreck had only partially survived, and not everything could be preserved, even though every piece was documented,” said Koivikko. “It felt unfortunate, and I began wondering whether the wood fragments could still be of use.”
Koivikko joined forces with design and textile experts, chemists, and forestry specialists, to find a way to transform this historical wood into something new.
Turning waterlogged wood into workable fibers
Bioengineer Inge Schlapp-Hackl oversaw the highly technical process of converting the more than 300-year-old wood into a workable textile fiber. She removed the outer layer to expose the wood’s core, which was then shredded and processed into a dissolving pulp. She then used a patented Ioncell® process to turn the pulp into fiber. Ioncell® uses a solvent called ionic liquid to convert the cellulose from old textiles, wood pulp, and newspapers into fibers, without using other chemicals. The fibers can then be made into long-lasting fabrics.
“Ioncell® fibres have a silky feel and are stronger than cotton,” said Schlapp-Hackl. “In addition to new and reclaimed wood, the Ioncell® method can utilise recycled materials like paper, cardboard, textile waste and straw for fibre production.”
According to the team, the finished yarn is surprisingly strong. It has a subtle sheen and a brown hue, and remains undyed and unbleached. That brown coloring directly originates from the Hahtiperä wreck.
“The pulp made from the wreck contained very few impurities and was surprisingly easy to process,” added Schlapp-Hackl. “This project demonstrated that the Ioncell® method can be used to produce fibre from practically any cellulose-based material.”
The team then used an experimental design program to generate patterns on a local computer. According to the team, this process minimizes energy consumption and so that the designer and AI can work together.
Aalto University textile expert Anna-Mari Leppisaari designed and knitted two identical dresses from yarn, and the surface pattern is inspired by wood grain and digital noise. She knit the dress on a Shima Seiki knitting machine as a single, seamless, three-dimensional piece to keep from wasting any of the fabric.
A lesson in waste
For Aalto University textile artist and designer Pirjo Kääriäinen, raising awareness of the need to reduce consumption of natural resources has been a lifelong mission. She and her colleagues have spent over 15 years researching how different biomasses and raw materials can be used as raw materials for textile fibers.
The team says that the Shipwreck Dress demonstrates the possibilities that exist when technology and design are tested and that the dress’ historical origins encourage fresh thinking about sustainable consumption.
“Of course, a shipwreck is an exceptional case, but it’s also a story that makes people pause and appreciate materials in a new way,” said Kääriäinen. “If something this beautiful can be made from centuries-old wood, why do we keep throwing away materials that could still be circulated and reused?”
The Shipwreck Dress will be exhibited at the Oulu Museum of Art beginning on Friday May 22. Its twin piece will be shown at Aalto University’s Designs for a Cooler Planet 2026 exhibition beginning on September 1.
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