There are some truly beautiful beetles around, and they mostly live on a easy-to-come-by diet of fungi and vegetables. Farming them in great numbers is quite easy, and their size is very uniform, so the process could be automated: Harvesting their hard forewings(elytra), that come in just about every color and lightness, from ultra-black to iridiscent red, and grafting them onto textiles just like sequins.
-- loonquawl, Jan 30 2009

How Bohemian (+) http://reviews.ebay...dZ10000000004272294
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jan 30 2009]

baked in some foreign countries... http://www.insects....d2/beetles_tex.html
[xandram, Feb 03 2009]

close-up of beetle wing fabric http://www.insects.org/ced2/turban.html
[xandram, Feb 03 2009]

Can I give [2 fries shy of a happy meal] œ your bun just for the link?

In theory, I like the concept. "Scarlet Scarab Beetle" suit; "Ladybird Beetle Carapace" vest, etc. As long as there is no low-budget "Cockroach Coat" version, I'm sold.

Or will Cockroach Coats become the chic new Goth Du Jour look? Retro-Punk? (I could see Johnny Rotten in one of those...)

(Shouldn't they be plasticized in some way? Rolling around with an "crunchy" coat might be a drag...)

Your idea isn't completely original - ([2 fries...] link) - but, because I can't give you œ a bun: [+]
-- Wily Peyote, Jan 30 2009


On Antiques Roadshow, someone brought in a "painting" that was actually made from thousands of tiny insect wings glued onto canvas. It was neat! Clothes would work too but it's sort of cruel to colorful insects.
-- phundug, Jan 30 2009


Surely simpler, by far, to create a high-oxygen vivarium and selectively breed for people-sized insects. They could then be hollowed out and used as fully articulated high-fashion space suits.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 31 2009



random, halfbakery