Dress in fashion, have the latest trend, buy those tennis shoes or those jeans that so many of us like, have branded wallets, purses or designer accessories, or even buy cheap clothes that wear out quickly and give space soon to a new garment. We all do it, we are consumers, and consuming clothes is one of our main guilty pleasures.
The data says so. According to the United Nations (UN) the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry on the planet, producing more carbon emissions than all international flights and maritime transport combined.
Yes, fashion is considered one of the most damaging and polluting industries for the environment, but if there were no one to buy its products, they would not be manufactured in such a dizzying manner. In fact, the average consumer buys 60% more clothing than a decade ago and a piece is used only ten times before being thrown away. It is not surprising then that the production of clothing in the world has doubled between the years 2000 and 2014.
But in recent years, consumer trends have been changing, more and more consumers are interested in knowing where the products they buy come from, how they are manufactured and what materials they are made of. Climate change and the notable effects on the environment have made dressing not only a political issue, but sometimes one of survival itself.
That is why the fashion industry is changing, and although slowly, seeking substitutes for its most polluting raw materials. Leathers based on animal skin, textiles, and in general materials that are currently cheaper but whose carbon footprint deeply damages the planet.
These are the most unusual raw materials that could pave the way for sustainable fashion in the future.
Fish skin.
Fish skin made into leather is one of the newest alternative raw materials being used in the world of fashion to produce and make garments and accessories.
Contrary to what one might think, once transformed into leather, fish skin can be up to nine times stronger than lamb or cow leather, because it their fibers are intertwined with differences from being linear like those of bovines.
This characteristic makes it an attractive substitute for the fashion industry, making it a more durable raw material for the production of shoes, belts, bags and the like.
Atlantic Leather is the first and only fish tannery in Europe, processing salmon, perch, cod and wolffish skins since 1994, becoming a pioneer in this industry and paving the way for what can be a solution for the excessive use of cow skin in leather production.
Their owners say that the curing process of the hides takes between three and four weeks and that currently they manage to produce 10,000 skins or almost a ton of fish leather per month.
This leather is colored with synthetic pigments and is sold loose but also in shoes, bags or purses. Among Atlantic Leather's prominent clients are luxury fashion houses such as Dior, Salvatore Ferragamo, or Jimmy Choo.
The use of fish leather is, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), a way not only to make fashion more sustainable, but also to generate increased income to fishing communities around the world.
Currently, fish leather accounts for less than 1% of total leather sales globally, but initiatives such as the Leather Working Group, a group of businessmen in the sector, of which brands such as Adidas, Nike and Primark are looking to introduce more environmentally responsible practices and turning to this raw material could be an attractive alternative.
The fish-skin trend is gaining fans as far away as Kenya, where a Victorian Foods company produces about 400 kilos of leather a week from fish caught in the Nile River.
In France, the startup Ictyos, is harvesting salmon skin from Paris restaurants to turn it into leather and produce luxury watch straps and wallets that will later be embraced by brands such as Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior.
In Brazil there is another example in the company Coopescarte, which is developing easy and cheap ways to produce fish leather thanks to a program supported by the Department of Fisheries and Agriculture of the FAO.
And in Honduras, designer Pili Luna is working hand in hand with artisanal fishermen from her country to design and produce accessories made of this material.
Mushroom leather
Some of the companies that are at the forefront in the production of this new raw material are MycoWorks and Bolt Threads, who have managed to capture the imagination of luxury brands with mushroom or mycelium leather, an ecological alternative to animal and synthetic leather.
Grown from mushrooms in less than two weeks, mycelium leather emits fewer greenhouse gases and uses far fewer land and water resources than raising cattle to produce animal leather.
In fact, since fungi are decomposers and feed on biomass, eg dead plants, mycelium leather production is literally driven by carbon drawn from the atmosphere. And unlike many synthetic leathers, Mycelium Leather does not contain petroleum-based materials like PVC and polyurethane.
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The other great feature is its remarkable quality, something that luxury brands are excited about.
The feel of mycelium leather is as soft as butter and so supple that Hermès, known for holding the highest standards with its leather, is already experimenting with it . In March 2021 the brand unveiled a sample of the Victoria holdall reinvented with Sylvania, an exclusive amber-toned mycelium leather produced by MycoWorks.
Last year alone, MycoWorks raised nearly $45 million in a Series B round from investors including Natalie Portman and John Legen. The company uses a proprietary technology called Fine Mycelium to grow a dense mesh of mycelium with precise specifications for thickness and smoothness of the brand.
But just half a mile from MycoWorks' California workshops is its main competitor in the biomaterials industry: Bolt Threads.
And if MycoWorks has Hermès, Bolt Threads has the backing of Stella McCartney, luxury conglomerate Kering, and sportswear giants Adidas and Lululemon who have joined in a consortium to help finance the development of a mycelium leather called Mylo.
This mycelium leather is already being put to the test, in bustier prototypes and handcrafted utilitarian pants with Mylo panels laid over recycled nylon neoprene. All with the quality seal of Stella McCartney, one of the most recognized brands in the use of ecological materials in fashion.
“With Mylo, this is something that's grown in labs, which is truly the future. If we can get this right and come up with a viable alternative to leather, then it can really have a big impact on the planet”, says the designer.
Fruit leather
Among other materials with which leather is being manufactured as a sustainability alternative, there are fruits such as grapes or pineapple.
The biomaterials company Vegea uses the by-products of the winemaking process, vegetable oils and natural fibers from agriculture to make what is called 'grape leather'.
This material is already being used by brands like Marni, H&M and Mr Porter and in Ganni's chunky 90s sandals. A key thing in the use of this material is that it goes unnoticed in terms of recognition by the consumer.
Something similar happens with pineapple, the raw material for Piñatex de Ananas Anam, one of the best-known alternatives for animal leather. Made from fibers from waste pineapple leaves, the leather-like material was the basis of Nike's Happy Pineapple 2021 collection and found its way to Selfridges via Mārīcī, a plant-based accessories brand .
Strong yet lightweight, the fabric is a popular choice for shoes and bags, but has also been used for dresses, jackets and suits. Thanks to its versatility, the list of brands that dabble in Piñatex is growing exponentially: Paul Smith, Hugo Boss and H&M have used it.
Algae and the future of textiles
According to the World Bank, 20% of water pollution is caused by textile processing, and in the same vein, a quarter of the chemical resources produced in the world are used in this industry.
Alarming data that raises the urgent need to find sustainable solutions for manufacturers in the sector, and in this scenario seaweed is increasingly taking the crown of the “fiber of the future”.
Seaweed is a well-known and widely used raw material in health and beauty sectors such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, thanks to the fact that they contain high levels of antioxidants that help protect our skin, but increasingly in the fashion industry, is turning to these marine plants in search of an environmentally friendly textile source.
In the world there are already experiments of this type, such as the Israeli company Algaeing that manufactures textiles from algae, which are cultivated by another Israeli company called Algatech, which uses indoor "vertical farms" that work with solar energy they manage to obtain the algae with a minimal carbon footprint and without occupying land for agriculture.
Algaeing turns the algae into a liquid formula that can then be used as a dye or made into a textile when combined with cellulose, a plant fiber, which clothing manufacturers can make themselves using the Company's proprietary recipe.
According to Renana Krebs, director of Algaeing, her company's algae fibers reduce water use by 80% compared to the approximate 2,700 liters of water required to produce cotton in one plain t-shirt.
Although producing textiles with algae is still much more expensive than with cotton, there are already brands and personalities from the world of fashion who are betting on this fiber of the future.
Menswear brand Vollebak used spirulina algae to create a black dye as an alternative to the ubiquitous carbon black, which is derived from petroleum; Jason Momoa launched a line of sneakers with seaweed insoles, just to name a few.
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