There's no need to worry about wine stains on the dress that's made from wine itself.

Contemporary artist Donna Franklin and Bioalloy's Gary Cass have created the wine dress under their fermented fashion label, Micro'-be'.

The dress is made of cellulose - a component that is chemically similar to cotton - by growing a type of bacteria called acetobacter that's used to convert red wine into vinegar. The bacteria forms a "skin" over the red wine.

"The Micro'-be' garments are made from microbial cotton which forms on the surface of the wine, almost as if the bacteria are trying to form a raft to flow on the wine," Cass told Wired.co.uk.

Cass,who carries out research for the University of Western Australia (UWA) where Franklin has also worked, discovered the material while attempting to develop a robot with self-developing covering.

The pair believe that the material could be worn like a second skin. Cass explains that they have worked out how to make the bacteria form three-dimensionally, which would result in a seamless garment, just like a second skin.

The only catch is that when the material dries out, it is easily torn - a challenge that Cass and Franklin still have to overcome.

And while the material might have a place in the fashion world someday, it needn't stay there, says Cass, who will be investigating other ways that the material might be of use. Currently, he is researching whether it would work in the medical world as a way to dress wounds.