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Fabric revolution - 26th February 2020

Notoriously highly-polluting, fashion is attempting to throw off this label as the 9th Future Fabrics Expo in London unveiled a host of innovative and ecological materials.

Founded by non-profit organisation The Sustainable Angle in a bid to revolutionise fashion’s environmental approach, the expo is chock-full of greener fabrics. Manufactured from plastic bottles and an extensive variety of waste products, they include this pineapple leaf fibre from the Philippines.

Ceri Rees, Sales and Marketing Manager Ananas anam: “the fruit is cut and harvested for consumption and we use the plant, the long plant leaves that are left behind which are otherwise usually burnt or sometimes they’re left to rot so we, we’re adding value to this waste, waste product."

Remarkably, in Brazil, fish skin has even been worked into leather.

Rodrigo Lopes, Commercial director of Nova Kaeru: “it's a very important food source and the skins were just going to waste then we turned into this beautiful leather."

Taking this forward-thinking approach to sourcing fabrics, the exhibition strives to promote the viability of alternative materials.