Groundbreaking fashion and science show opens in city

However, academics from Sheffield University have now teamed up with the London College of Fashion to put on the “Field of Jeans” fashion show with a difference.

The exhibition, which opened yesterday in Sheffield’s Peace Gardens and Winter Gardens , showcases the world’s first “air-purifying” jeans.

Field of Jeans forms part of Catalytic Clothing, which aims to explore how clothing and textiles can be used as a “catalytic surface to purify the air we breathe.”

Around 30 pairs of jeans in the display, donated by the public, have been treated with a substance that enables them to break down pollutants from the surrounding atmosphere.

Catalytic Clothing is the creation of unlikely collaborators Professor Helen Storey, a practising artist and designer at London College of Fashion, and Professor Tony Ryan, a scientist at Sheffield University.

Professor Ryan said: “Field of Jeans is the latest issue of Catalytic Clothing and a beautiful manifestation of a deeply technical process. There are more pairs of jeans than people on the earth.

“We are developing something that is both user-friendly and technically excellent, to improve the urban environment.”