A new international material alliance—Fibral—seeks to bring together companies and individuals working with ancient underrepresented and newly used plant-based fibres. Fibral was launched at the 2022 edition of Texworld Evolution Paris in the first week of February.
The over-arching objective: Fibral wants to create a diversified plant-based fibre market as a real, tangible alternative solution to a product market dominated by synthetic and animal materials.
- The alliance provides necessary support to its member organisations; the makers that have created solutions intentionally and mindfully to valorise renewable resources. Their supply chains are designed with the communities they source from with the goal to achieve both positive environmental and social impact.
Specific aims: The alliance’s website lists the aims:
- To unite like-minded companies developing plant-based, innovative and sustainable materials and providing a space for partnering, sharing and caring;
- To strengthen and give voice to the common vision and mission of healing the earth’s ecosystems and the textiles industry;
- To enhance and empower its members’ market positioning, as Fibral materials become a new force for change in the world of textile materials;
- To become a strong platform to jointly access new industries and markets which are common to all members;
- To bring transparency, traceability and clear guidelines and classification to all Fibral materials under the Fibral trade name;
- To help to drive innovation;
- To elevate the conversation within this material category.
The founding members: The Fibral Material Alliance was established when the three founders Carmen Hijosa from Ananas Anam, Hannes Schoenegger from Bananatex and Ricardo Garay from Regenerate Fashion identified the need for a platform or alliance to give this new range of exciting materials a name. Circular Systems joined later.
- Ananas Anam, the makers of Piñatex, an innovative natural textile made from waste pineapple leaf fibre is a Certified B Corporation. The leaves are the byproduct of existing agriculture, and their use creates an additional income stream for farming communities. Piñatex is a natural, sustainably-sourced, cruelty free material.
- Bananatex is a durable, technical fabric made purely from the naturally grown abacá banana plants. Cultivated in the Philippine highlands within a natural ecosystem of sustainable mixed agriculture and forestry, the plant is self-sufficient, requires no pesticides, fertiliser or extra water.
- Circular Systems SPC is a materials science company focused on the development of innovative circular and regenerative technologies, transforming waste into valuable fibre, yarn, and textile fabrics for the fashion industry. With its waste-to-fibre platforms Texloop and Agraloop, combined with its proprietary Orbital hybrid yarn technology, the company offers breakthrough solutions for the most efficient management of textile and agricultural waste streams.
- Regenerate Fashion is an international consultancy focused on integrating sustainability in fashion, from corporate strategy to product design. Through strategic consulting and capacity building for fashion companies and industry professionals, the company’s mission is to enact long-lasting change in the industry by aligning work with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Similar initiatives: The Discover Natural Fibres Initiative, a platform launched in 2009 by 15 organisations for the natural fibres stakeholder community, facilitates the exchange of knowledge and experience among members, to advance common interests. It, however, promotes all natural fibres in the face of competition from manmade fibres. Fibral, on the other hand, is about plant-based fibres.
