When Death Designs Go Viral

The new death start-ups are finding customers through word of mouth. Ms. Lee created an online group of people (most of them still healthy) who were paired off to discuss their personalities, fears and plans for death. David Weaver, an advertising executive who lives in rural Vermont, joined after being inspired by a 2011 TED Talk Ms. Lee gave about her suit. (The talk, in which Ms. Lee wore the death suit and discussed “training” mushrooms to eat her own nail clippings, skin and hair, has been viewed by more than 1.3 million people.)

Mr. Weaver bought a death suit for himself and a cotton death pod for his two-year-old wire terrier, Beaker. He’s planning ahead: Both he and his pet are healthy.

“We as a society have had a hard time getting over this image of, you’re put in the ground, in a cemetery or in an urn,” Mr. Weaver, 50, said in an interview. “It’s very untraditional, but this is the only thing I’ve been able to see where my values while I was alive can be implemented as I die.”

A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ms. Lee has long been obsessed with how humans relate to their environment. She used her body as a test subject once before, adhering to a strict vegan diet to see if her urine could nourish plants. She grew cabbage that she then made it into kimchi.

“I started to question why we’re so disgusted with our bodies,” she said, adding, “I want to challenge those taboos where we don’t think that we’re animals.”

In Ms. Lee’s TED talk, her suit gives her the appearance of a ninja. But in person, it’s nonthreatening. When I tried it on, the cotton suit, created with a fashion designer, Daniel Silverstein, felt like a heavy pair of pajamas. The jacket has wooden buttons and flaps that cover the face and hands. It is lined with two different types of mushrooms that assist in breaking down human tissue and delivering nutrients back to the soil over a period of months. On the outside, the stitching mimics the dendritic patterns of mushroom mycelium.