The primitive streak in developmental biology refers to the first cells which hint at structure in the embryonic stage for avians, reptiles, and mammals. From the article, Primal Fashion by Cristina Luiggi for The Scientist,

The most important event in a human’s life — to paraphrase a famous quote by developmental biologist Lewis Wolpert — occurs during the second week of embryonic development, when, out of a blob of cells, the first hint of structure appears. Known as the primitive streak, it heralds the massive reorganization of cells that results in the formation of the three germ layers that form all the tissues in the body.

Luiggi’s story is about two sisters, Kate Storey, a developmental biologist, and Helen Storey, a fashion designer, who collaborated in 1997 under the auspices of a Wellcome Trust project to produce a collection of dresses known as the Primitive Streak (downloaded from Luiggi’s article in The Scientist).

Primitive Streak (African Streak) dress and illustration courtesy of Helen Storey Photograph: Justine. Model: Korinna (downloaded from The Scientist)

In 2011 (fourteen years later), the sisters have collaborated again. From the Primitive Streak website Introduction page,

Helen and Kate collaborated in 1997 to create a series of fashion/textile designs, spanning the first 1,000 hours of human life. Producing these at London College of Fashion, Helen and Kate worked interactively using design at multiple levels to evoke the key embryonic processes that underlie our development. Seen and acclaimed by millions internationally and called a ‘cultural hybrid’, it changed the course of Helen’s career – her time is now devoted to ideas and work rooted in science. Kate is dedicated to the public understanding of science.

14 years on, Helen and Kate have collaborated again to produce new dresses, which explore the science behind the development and function of the lungs.

The full collection is 27 dresses, 10 of which originate from this new collaboration while the other 17 were created for the 1997 exhibit. In describing how the sisters worked together, a fascinating tidbit about the heart emerges (from the Luiggi article),

To help Helen with the creative process, Kate suggested an interesting fact of heart development: the heart forms from cells that are in front of the developing brain, which are eventually displaced into the chest cavity.

“So your heart actually starts above your head,” Kate says. [emphasis mine]

The science immediately clicked in Helen’s mind, who reached out to a milliner to help her mold the tubes of a primitive heart into a Nylon straw hat with a base shaped like a diaphragm — the structure in which the mature heart finally rests.

I think for anyone of a philosophical bent that fact about heart cells could lead to some interesting speculation. Luiggi’s article features more details, pictures, and a slideshow or there’s the Primitive Streak website for anyone who’d like to delve deeper.