There was a time when clothing was only made from natural materials like wool or cotton.

Today, you can find clothes made from plastic bottles, recycled parachutes, algae, wood pulp and other materials that cut down on waste and reduce fashion's notoriously massive carbon footprint.

So it was only a matter of time before someone enlisted a completely new type of molecularly engineered biomaterial, thereby creating the world's first lab-grown sweater. And then threw in a lab-grown beanie and scarf.

This new collection comes from Vollebak, a company that's constantly innovating and whose past experiments have resulted in some of the most unique pieces on the planet. Like T-shirts made from wood and garbage. And while none of those things sound particularly comfortable, they keep finding ways to make them comfortable.

This latest initiative is a partnership with Japanese company Spiber. While Spiber was looking for ways to engineer synthetic spider silk, they created a new type of biomaterial grown through molecular engineering that they call Brewed Protein. Vollebak is using this protein to create the material for their new sweater, beanie and scarf.

From Vollebak:

Building a never-seen-before biomaterial involves selecting DNA sequences from a database of hundreds of different animals and insects — from sheep and squid to spiders and crickets. Injecting these sequences into thousands of tiny microbes — a process called microorganism programming. Then brewing these microbes with sugar, which they transform into a protein polymer to create a completely new type of biomaterial.

In terms of its molecular composition, how it feels on your skin, and what it can do, it sits somewhere between cashmere, wool and silk — three of the softest, highest-performance natural fibers on Earth.

For now, that bioenginered material is being blended with Merino wool, another fine fabric that's insulating, breathable and thermoregulating. But Vollebak hopes to one day create a piece entirely in a petri dish.

Everything is mid-weight, so you can wear these items during warmer weather or use them as layering pieces during winter. And they're fully reversible, so it's like getting two sweaters/beanies/scarves in one.

There's a lot more science at play here, but all you really need to know is that these are soft, comfortable pieces made from a completely new material that has serious implications for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, land use and water consumption. 

That's a lot to fit on a holiday card, and too much for that 12-second elevator ride from your office to the lobby. But it's still nice to know.