Whats next: fast forward to the past

‘Making a comeback’ might be one of the most common phrases used to describe trends in fashion today. The most wanted items each season are often styles and silhouettes that previously dominated the fashion scene decades ago. Red carpets are overloaded by sheer dresses resurrecting Cher’s 1975 Time Magazine cover in her feathered nude gown, and Destiny’s Child’s low waisted jeans and kitten heels have taken over the streets of all fashion capitals.

The revival of fashion trends emerged during the beginning of the modern fashion cycle along with the democratization of fashion towards the end of the nineteenth century. Suppose that we break this cycle, and look even further into the past, when society clothed out of need for protection and utility rather than aesthetic motives. We might find that the ‘unfashionable’ based on natural material innovation could be an inspiration for the next ‘fashionable’.

The Inuit, the indigenous people of the Arctic, invented the natural antecedent to GORE-TEX 5000 years before the high-tech fabric took the market by storm. They traditionally constructed outerwear, primarily parkas, by assembling large strips of the intestine lining of whales and seals.

The animals’ intestines have microscopic holes that allow the perspiration to escape, but are too small for raindrops to enter, making the parkas completely waterproof yet breathable.

The whale-gut parkas are truly a chef-d'œuvre realized by the meticulous know-how of the Inuit. After the intestines of the whale or seal are thoroughly cleaned, they are cleansed with urine, a common ancient cleansing technique because of its high ammonia levels.

The intestine lining is then soaked in fresh water for 5 days and lastly dried and stretched out to prepare for the assembling of the parka.

The strips of the material are sewn together by self-made sinew thread. Sinew thread is a strong, flexible thread made from the tendons of animals. In order to maintain the natural waterproof characteristics of the intestine, the stitching does not fully penetrate the material.

The use of intestine and sinew is often considered unhygienic or unethical in modern day society. However, the conscientiousness of the Inuit could be considered an early adaptation of a circular economy. Every part of the whale has a purpose in Inuit culture: from the blubber, skin, and meat for nutrition, baleen for fishing nets to the use of its bones for construction.

Not only did the processing of whales generate zero waste and provided a strong base for an efficient local economy while bringing the community together through common responsibility. On a small scale a resurrection of this creation of natural materials based on collaboration and utilization of available resources is apparent.

Small entrepreneurs like Hugo de Boon and Koen Meerkerk, founders of Fruit Leather Rotterdam, are enhancing circular economy, innovation and collaboration. Fruit Leather Rotterdam aims to make waste valuable by converting rotten mangoes to vegan leather. The two entrepreneurs, whose final thesis project of their bachelor in spatial design at the Willem de Kooning Academy developed into a business, now receive over 1500 wasted mangoes weekly. Meerkerk explains they are part of a symbiotic relationship; mango importer Total Exotic donates them rotted mangos thus does not have to cover waste costs, and therewith Fruit Leather receives their raw materials.

Upon arrival at the Fruit Leather workplace, the mangoes are destoned and turned into a fiber-rich pulp. The duo then adds non-chemical additives and turns the mangoes into leather through a dehydration process.

Fruit Leather Rotterdam works together with footwear, fashion accessories, furnishing and upholstery brands to create contemporary products out of waste. Resources are becoming more scarce daily, yet worldwide we throw away 1.3 billion tonnes of food yearly.

This is about one-third of all food production. Through their initiative, De Boon and Meerkerk epitomize that connecting different industries, like fruits and textile in this case, can promote a circular economy based on collaboration creating beneficial innovations.

There is a strong parallel between the ethos of the Inuit traditions centuries ago, and entrepreneurs like Fruit Leather Rotterdam today: collaboration and utilization of available resources as a starting point to create. Exploring the past before modern fashion by taking inspiration from thousands of years of know-how in natural material development opens new doors to innovate trend cycles in today’s oversaturated fashion industry.

Including innovation of natural materials as an inherent element in fashion cycles can lead to the sustainable development of new, surprising, fashionable products. It is time for the major players in the industry to come back to the far past to take a leap into a durable future.