The original article can be found here.
“Thanks to technological developments aesthetics these days go perfectly with ethics. It is only surprising that the fashion scene is really behind on that. That’s why I myself try to take a lead.
Combining creativity, entrepreneurship and idealism is what I’ve always done; I used to make bags when I was a child and after my studies in Fine art and Design in Brussels, I lived in Africa for a couple of years fundraising for NGO’s.
Together with my partner and advisor Lawrence Dedroog, we thought the whole cycle through. Our entire approach is sustainable. Thus we use fish skins: a waste product from Northern European fisheries that we get tanned in a European facility that runs entirely on renewable energy. The tanning itself demands a lot less toxic processes, less water and less dye than other leathers do.
No hairs need to be removed and the fishleather naturally is quite strong and pale in colour.
It is also limited in size, but we work around that by just keeping that in mind at the design-table and by using salmon skins with average sizes.
Challenges don’t scare me; I love to seek solutions and ways to conquer obstacles.”