Water soluble materials that evocatively dissolve and seemingly melt away under water are appearing everywhere, most recently at designer Hussein Chalayan’s Paris Fashion Week show.

Known for experimental fashion design, these soluble outfits are part of the Chalayan Spring Summer 2016 collection that debuted at the Palais des Beaux-Arts. Models wearing white, medium length jackets stood on the runway. As water began to pour down from the ceiling, the jackets began to dissolve, revealing patterned dresses embroidered with Swarovski jewels beneath. You can watch a mesmerizing video of this here.

Of this unconventional attitude towards fashion, design and materials, the Cyprus-born British designer says, “If you don’t take risks in the world, nothing happens, you just stay static.”

Chalayan is not the first to experiment with clothes that seem to disappear before your eyes.

Dutch fashion designer Jef Montes for example experiments with water soluble textiles in collaboration with Tilburg’s TextielLab. His ‘Velero’ collection was presented at Amsterdam Fashion Week 2015 earlier this year and featured a soluble textile specially developed for a spectacular opening piece on the runway.

On the runway, the model burst an orb with water inside. As the water poured down her body, her dress began to dissolve and melt down her body. Montes’ experiments with water soluble materials and the creation of chemical reactions yielded this innovative fabric, which features a  dissolvable pattern fixated into the fabric via a chemical reaction. This water soluble innovation was added recently to Materia’s collection and more about the material and its designer can be discovered here.

Will this trend of dissolving, melting materials take off further? They do say that fashion is disposable after all!