Project description
Reeling in a new type of eco-friendly leather
Leather can also be made from fish skins. This eco-friendly material, which is durable, odour-free and stronger than cow leather, is a big catch for the fashion industry. The EU-funded FISHSkin project will develop this new category of raw material, bringing together mariculture and the fashion industry. Specifically, it will use both fish flesh and skin as viable economically useful products. The project will study the viability of fish leather in the fashion industry. It will develop new techniques and methodologies for a market take-up at industrial level. The project will base its findings on experts from the fields of fashion as well as materials science and marine biology.
Objective
The Fashion industry is currently going through a significant change in its approach towards sustainability, aiming to transform from a wasteful and polluting industry into the into a cleaner and more circular sector. In FISHSkin, our research concentrates on developing a new category of raw material for fashion – fish leather. we aim to amalgamate the Mariculture and Fashion industry by using both the fish flesh and skin as viable, economically useful products. While fish leather was used for centuries by indigenous people in Northern Europe and Asia, it was pushed aside by hides which offered better characteristics. Today, however, circular economy principles combined with state-of-the-art technology and changing consumer tastes – allow us to challenge existing fashion assumptions and explore the viability of fish leather is this industry. Through secondments and network training events we will generate knowledge cohesion from different disciplines: Fashion design, Material science and Marine biology where academic and industrial experts will strive to develop new techniques and methodologies for a market take up of fish leather at an industrial scale.
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Coordinator
52526 Ramat Gan
Israel