Piñatex

Piñatex is a fabric made from the fibres in pineapple leaves. Made by Carmen Hijosa, the properties are similar to leather, but made from by-products of the pineapple farming industry – the leaves. The by product of the decortication – extracting the fibres – of the leaves is bio-mass which can be used as fertiliser or made into biofuels. 

She describes it as a now woven fabric, “a type of textile produced by forming a net of fibres united by mechanical, thermical and chemical processes, but without being woven (using a weave and warp and weft), for which it is necessary that the fibres be previously converted into thread.”