DA GALLIANO ALLA CULTURA INUIT

From Galliano to Inuit culture, fish skin is raw material for textiles. The study of the processing of this material is an opportunity for anthropology and fashion to meet, and highlights sociological aspects often unknown to the Western world, such as the role of women

An ancient tradition for a circular economy

The use of fish skin to create clothing is not new to the Arctic populations living along rivers and coastlines. Evidence of their use since ancient times can be found in Siberia, Scandinavia, Alaska, on the island of Hokkaido, north of Japan, and in north-eastern China.

Fish skins come from food industry waste and their use in the creation of clothing is an application of the circular economy principle.

Women protagonists

The study of the processing of this material is an opportunity for anthropology and fashion to meet, and highlights sociological aspects often unknown to the Western world, such as the role of women, who are responsible for processing the skins and often also for sourcing the fish themselves.

Elisa Palomino, from John Galliano to the Arctic

Elisa Palomino is a Spanish fashion designer, born in Valencia in the late sixties, who in over 25 years of experience has worked for some of the most important international fashion houses, including Dior, Moschino, Roberto Cavalli, Diane Von Furstenberg and John Galliano, where she was studio director for over seven years. For the last ten years she has dedicated herself to teaching and academic research, she is director of the Fashion Print Department at Central Saint Martins in London and has taught at several fashion schools, from Parsons in New York to Polimoda in Florence, under the direction of Patrick De Muynck.

In 2017, taking the opportunity offered by a PhD from the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the London College of Fashion, Palomino began studying fish skin as a raw material for the fashion industry. Inspiration came from her years with John Galliano, with whom she had investigated Inuit culture, discovering fish skin for the first time, presented at Première Vision in Paris by an Icelandic tannery.

While Galliano had been preoccupied with using this material for the luxury market, Palomino decided instead to delve into the cultural and ethnological aspects, departing from the rhythms of fashion and giving himself time to study its use, present and past, through contact with various indigenous populations. The aim is to understand how fish skin can be used in the fashion market, but also to bring the processing of this material into schools, educating his students in sustainable production and teaching them the various processing techniques, from tanning to dyeing.

https://lampoonmagazine.com/article/2023/01/01/fishskin-pelle-di-pesce-tessile/





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