If today’s sustainability mantra is “from
farm to fork,” tomorrow’s could be “from
farm to fashion.” That’s because, for a
growing cadre of eco-minded designers,
food waste is the new black.
Sacha Laurin’s medium of choice is
the bacterial “colony” left after brewing
the tart, fermented tea known as kombu-
cha. Once dried, the material becomes a
rather pungent faux leather, which the
California designer sews into haute cou-
ture dresses (right), jackets, skirts, and
more. In Sicily, a start-up is working with
discarded citrus peels, seeds, and other
juicing by-products to produce a silky
yarn. And a London company is helping
support Filipino pineapple farmers by
turning the plants’ unused leaves into
a textile that can be crafted into shoes,
bags, and laptop computer cases.
More than a billion tons of food is lost
or wasted every year globally, according
to the UN Food and Agriculture Organi-
zation, some of it the result of large-scale
production. This excess o?ers an oppor-
tunity to create a range of sustainable
fabrics, says University of Leeds textile
chemist Richard Blackburn, such as a
renewable polyester from the sugar in
surplus crops, including corn.
Kombucha apparel is not yet com-
mercially available. But it is scienti?cally
viable, says Australian biochemist Peter
Musk, who oversees college art students
working with the tea. If they have any-
thing to do with it, the drink could one
day be coming to a closet near you.
