Anke Domaske, the great granddaughter of a seamstress in East
Germany, began to draw, sew, and design dresses as a child. At
the age of 19, she opened her own fashion label, Mademoiselle
Chichi, and a few years later, prominent celebrities like Mischa
Barton and Ashlee Simpson were seen wearing her clothes.1 But
that doesn’t explain how her dresses found their way to Time
Magazine’s Top 50 inventions of 2011.2 In addition to being a
fashion designer, Anke Domaske is a biochemist and
microbiologist. For six years, she doubled as a student at the
University of Göttingen while managing her firm. She would
retreat to Hannover at night to manage Mademoiselle Chichi.3 Her
journey towards materials development continued when her
stepfather was diagnosed with cancer and found his immune system
weakened to such an extent that his own clothing exacerbated his
health condition. This led Domaske to discover that “there are
so many people who really suffer just by wearing normal
clothing.”4 By combining her love of fashio