Charlotte Werth is a design researcher specializing in material futures, bacterial dyeing and biodesign. She holds a BA in Integrated Design from Köln International School of Design and an MA in Material Futures from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, both awarded with Distinction. Her MA graduation project explored the co-design of textiles with pigment-producing bacteria, which won the Maison/0 Green Trail Award in 2022. This led to a Designer in Residency at Maison/0, the Central Saint Martins and LVMH platform for regenerative luxury, where she developed the Automating Violacein collection using her Bacterial Dye Machine. Between 2022 and 2023, she participated in the Swarovski Foundation's Creatives for our Future programme, conducting research into the automation and scalability of bacteria-dyed textiles. In November 2024, she joined the Lifefabs Institute in London as an Independent Researcher and was appointed Co-Director of the Institute in January 2026.
Last month, the Designers' Association and Foundation of Madrid (DIMAD) presented Complementarios, a collective exhibition dedicated to the space between cratfs and industry. Curated by Inés Sistiaga and with an exhibition design by Studioestudio, the exhibition gathere the work of more than a dozen national and international professionals, focusing on the concept of interdependence as an alternative to overproduction. Thanks to the support of the British Council, the exhibition featured the participation of Charlotte Werth. We spoke with her following her visit to Madrid to gain a closer understanding of her work and practice.
For people who are encountering you work for the first time, how would you describe it?
I work with pigment-producing bacteria to dye textiles. For the process, I prepare a textile for it to be dyed in a specific pattern and then inoculate it with the bacteria strain. The bacteria then grows in the pattern, however as it is a living microorganism, I can’t fully control the outcome. Bacteria dye uses no harmful chemicals, far less water than synthetic or natural dyes, and it works on all fiber types, natural or synthetic.
Could you please share with us the story of how you came to work with bacterial dye and how it impacted your work?
Nine years ago in my I did a semester abroad at Designskolen Kolding in MA Sustainable Fashion and while working on a project I found a short documentary about pigment produced ink. I was fascinated by it, found out about a few designers working with it already and reached out to a professor who introduced me to this laboratory practice. The fascination hasn’t stopped ever since and it is still a big part of my practice.
You often mention that bacteria is a collaborator that you work with, and that co-designing and co-producing with it means understanding its unpredictable way of growing. What has surprised you the most during the process of automating textile pattern design that is created with pigment-producing bacteria?
Every time I finish dyeing a textile piece, I am surprised of what unexpected outcome has been grown by the bacteria. As I don’t have all the control over the outcome of a piece and it takes a few days to dye the anticipation each time is quite high and I am excited to see the piece and how my collaborators have transformed it.
The machine you have developed for this purpose sits at the intersection of automation and biology. In your experience, considering the current needs of the fashion industry, do you view technology and nature as potential partners that can change the industry or as obstacles to each other?
For a bigger impact, technology and nature absolutely need to work together. Biodesign is still such a new field that it often sits between established practices, microbiology and textile design, for example. The tools for this in‑between space haven’t really been invented yet; textile processes are trying to fit into systems designed for microbiology, and vice versa. Inventing new machines and tools that act as translators between biology and making are essential to forming this practice that sometimes feels a little bit of sitting in between two different practices and alternately borrowing from both.
It is no secret that mass production and consumption of clothing is having a significant impact on our environment. “Complementarios”, the exhibition organised by DIMAD in which you participated, explored the intermediate space between craft and industry, highlighting interdependence and small-scale sustainable production over mass production. What responsibility do you think designers have when faced with the ethical question of designing for a sustainable future right now?
I do believe that impactful change toward a more environmentally friendly production system must come from large-scale industries and policymakers, through laws, subsidies, and support for local production. We already have the material innovations and alternatives in start-ups and sustainable material producers; they’re simply not as lucrative as petroleum-based materials yet.
For smaller designers, responsibility lies in understanding the context and origins of the materials they work with. It’s also important to educate yourself about sustainable practices and reflect on which elements can be integrated into your own workflow. No one has to operate at 100% regenerative capacity, but everyone can adopt a part of it, whether that’s material education, community engagement, local production, or supporting material innovation.
As part of the exhibition’s activities, you gave a talk alongside designer Raquel Buj and Inés Sistiaga, the exhibition’s curator. What is a reflection you hope the audience left with after the talk?
I’d like for the audience to have left with the sense that bacteria can be a legitimate design collaborator, not just a novelty material. When we design with living systems instead of trying to fully control them, we open up a different kind of creativity, one that accepts variation, slowness, failure and uncertainty as part of the process. My hope is that people walked away curious about how this more‑than‑human way of making could shift not only textiles, but also how we think about production, value, and care in design.