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A designer planning to fashion pieces of clothing from the skin of the late fashion icon Alexander McQueen says that 'human leather' could be a new, ethical source of material.

Tina Gorjanc was able to extract McQueen's DNA from one of his hairs which the former Central Saint Martins-educated designer used in the labels of his own first collection.

But she denies that there's anything creepy about the process.

When the Slovenian student lodged her own final project last month, she used pig skin to create backpacks and jackets, but since then she has been working on the science of using human skin.

Working in the lab, she has made test samples of 'leather' from McQueen's DNA.

"You use a process which is called de-extinction, in which a biological agent is applied to the hair in the form of liquid and you extract certain genetic information from it," Gorjanc explains to The Telegraph.

" Then you use that information to reprogram already existing skin so it is the exact texture and colour and everything of the original source, so in this case McQueen's skin.

"It also depends on how much the hair sample is preserved as to how much information you can extract - fortunately McQueen's hair was preserved in a good state."

Gorjanc describes the leather making process - from growing the cells in a Petri dish in the laboratory, treating it with nutrients before killing the first layer and applying a preserving heat.

But she is keen to debunk any notion that the 'Pure Human' project is weird, saying she's no "creepy mad genius'.

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"I think it is fair for me to make sure the project receives the attention for the right reasons and not be diminished to just a 'creepy fashion collection made of human skin from a known personality'," she wrote on her Facebook page.

She explains: "All the initial samples that were made in the lab are tests to insure that the technology is even possible.

"However, this kind of procedures are still much undiscovered and big bio-engineering organisations with bigger budgets have better possibilities of developing it further."

(Image: Instagram/Tina Gorjanc)

She also says that it's about more than McQueen - it's actually "speculating how big corporations can exploit genetic information as a new source of luxury.

"It also addresses the problematic when it comes to defining the ownership of the information and its inheritance."

"Because of the lack of legislation surrounding the protection of genetic materials I wanted to showcase how someone can gain hold of biological material from sources you would usually think extremely protected.

"McQueen’s genetic information was interesting from the perspective that he is dead, has an enormous brand empire that is protected with numerous copyrights and still has relatives that have inherited his possessions – however his genetic info are still not well protected," she reveals.

She insists that the project comes from a speculative perspective, and "its end goal was never and is not to make a collection from the de-extinct skin of the dead designer."

(Image: Instagram/Tina Gorjanc)

She goes on: "The mock-up products that were made during the project aim to showcase one of the possible applications that this technology can have in the future, when biological materials are regarded as a source of luxury."

A representative from Alexander McQueen said: “Contrary to some press reports the company was not approached about this project nor have we ever endorsed it."