A Spanish entrepreneur spent over eight years developing a new textile she calls Pinatex. Pinatex is a new textile material made from pineapple leaf fibers, which is the waste of the pineapple harvest. Carmen Hijosa, who founded the company Ananas Anam to market Pinatex, works with pineapple farmers in the Philippines who harvest and strip the fibers from the leaves, because their characteristics and they’re very fine and strong and flexible. Since launching commercially in the mid-2015, Pinatecx has been used by about 500 manufacturers including a recent collaboration with fashion house Hugo Boss on a pair of vegan sneakers. Smaller fashion companies to have been inspired by its unique look and feel.

People come in. They’ll see it. They’re attracted to it. At first most of the time, they think it’s leather, and then they feel in it doesn’t feel leather. They’re there…Timothy Turner-Sutton, creative director for fashion brand Altiir whose entire collection of biker style jackets are made from Pinatex says, it’s got a unique texture. This is my neo classic biker jacket. It’s made by Altiir out of Pinatex. I’ve worn this for about a year, and it’s just it ages to your body really gracefully and molds molds to your body when it gets wet, it dries like leather, and it behaves like leather in every way except it’s completely sustainable. In addition to clothing, the company is entering new markets too, including interior furnishing and car upholstery.

Mariama Diallo VOA News.

Source: VOA

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