Can You Tell That This Leather Is Made From Pineapples?

"This is a coincidence," said Carmen Hijosa Pinatex, founder of a new sustainable made of pineapple leaf fiber textiles. Hijosa said she went to the Philippines, which leads to the career change, involving back to get a Ph.D degree at the university of London's royal college of art, start your own business, pineapple kofi annan, and an application for a patent for his own textile. A small coincidence, and a big change. Hijosa in leather industry has been working for 15 years in Ireland, when she was invited to consult in the export of leather. Hijosa arrived, she was exposed to low quality of material, working condition and leather adverse impact on the environment. Hijosa Suggestions, rather than try to export of leather, why don't you use what you got, the Philippines is a lot of natural fibers.

She began to explore different fibers and came to the pineapple leaves. "I realized that they are very powerful and flexible," she said. "I wanted to see if I can get them made from non-woven textile (like leather), do I have to do good research and development, can provide only a degree." So, she began to answer this question: pineapple leaf fiber can make a sustainable development of the textile products? Today, after five years of research and her doctorate, Hijosa can firmly say, yes. Wax, Pinatex can substitute for leather, but it can also print looks like snakeskin or given a metal finish a dose of luxury.

"Pinatex is a byproduct of the food industry," explained Hijosa. "Once the pineapple plants harvest rot." Not to happen, pineapple farmers collect leaves, and fiber and degumming in closed tanks. Once they have come unglued, fiber become soft, breathable, can pass a mechanical process, put them into a non-woven material, eventually feel the same feeling. The whole process does not use any additional water, the use of pesticides or fertilizers beyond cultivate pineapples. Production - enough for 1 kg of cotton, by contrast, a T-shirt and a pair of jeans - it requires 20000 litres of water.

To show the possibility of pineapple, Hijosa recruit help product designers and brands such as puma, campers and ally Capellino present products in real life. Pineapple, during the exhibition, held in December of RCA, visitors can come in and see the production chain, from the pineapple factory a roll of textile shoes, understand the possibility of the material. Looked at a prototype of the puma shoes, and leather version of the differences between is very small. Although Hijosa promoting her textile brand replacement leather - it is cheaper, there is a better footprint - she also wants to Pinatex itself. "You can have a bag that looks like leather, but in the end, you will know that this is not leather. This is' Pinatex '."

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