Integrated Term Project

Sustainable Fashion: Piña

Yukti Dua (BFT/17/534)

Shreya Rastogi (BFT/17/1038)
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Yukti Dua(BFT/17/534) and Shreya
Rastogi(BFT/17/1038), students of Bachelor of Fashion
Technology (Apparel Production) of NIFT Patna worked on the
project ‘Sustainable Fashion: Piña’ during the period from 15th
March, 2018 to 20th May, 2018.

_________________ _________________
Mr. Jayant Kumar Mr. Jayant Kumar
(Mentor) (Centre Coordinator)

2|Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank all the people who supported and
guided us in collecting information for our project on
‘Sustainable Fashion: Piña’; without whom this report wouldn’t
have been in its present form.
We are highly grateful to our mentor Mr. Jayant Kumar for
active direction of our project. We would like to express our
deep gratitude to him who mentored us to complete the given
project successfully which was full of learning and enhanced
our experience.
Thanks are also extended to all the faculty members of NIFT
Patna for their valuable suggestions.

3|Page
DECLARATION
We declare that the Integrated Term Project entitled
‘Sustainable Fashion: Piña’ submitted towards the fulfilment of
the programme Foundation Programme Technology II from
National Institute of Fashion Technology, Patna is our original
work and no part of it is taken or been copied from any kind of
media/report.
However, any material taken from any other published sourced
has been referred and acknowledged at various places.

4|Page
INDEX

S.No Topic Page No.

1 Certificate 2
2 Ack nowledgement 3
3 Declaration 4
4 Introduction 7
4.01 Fashion is the second dirtiest industry 7
4.02 A Thirsty, Needy Plant 7
4.03 Clothes to Dye For? 8
4.04 Sustainable Fashion 9
5 P ina Fabric 10
5.01 History And Origin 10
5.02 Plantation 10
5.03 Fibre Extraction Process 11
5.04 Combing 12
5.05 Warping 12
5.06 Spinning 13
5.07 Weaving 13
5.08 Dyeing 14
5.09 Embroidery 14
5.1 Production And Availability 15
5.11 Pricing 15
6 P inatex 16
6.01 History And Origin 16
6.02 Leaf Harvesting 17
6.03 Decortication 17

5|Page
6.04 Washing 18
6.05 Drying 19
6.06 Degumming 19
6.07 Non-Woven 20
6.08 Finishing 20
6.09 Finished Textile 21
6.1 Pricing 21
6.11 Properties of Pinatex 22
6.12 Life Cycle of Pinatex 22
7 Conclusion 23
8 Bibliography 24

6|Page
Fashion Is the Second Dirtiest Industry in the
World
When we think of pollution, we envision coal power plants, strip-mined
mountain tops and raw sewage piped into our waterways. We don't
often think of the shirts on our backs. But the overall impact the
apparel industry has on our planet is quite grim.
Fashion is a complicated business involving long and varied supply
chains of production, raw material, textile manufacture, clothing
construction, shipping, retail, use and ultimately disposal of the
garment.
A general assessment must take into account not only obvious
pollutants—the pesticides used in cotton farming, the toxic dyes used
in manufacturing and the great amount of waste discarded clothing
creates—but also the extravagant amount of natural resources used in
extraction, farming, harvesting, processing, manufacturing and
shipping.
While cotton, especially organic cotton, might seem like a smart choice,
it can still take more than 5,000 gallons of water to manufacture just a
T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Synthetic, man-made fibres, while not as
water-intensive, often have issues with manufacturing pollution and
sustainability. And across all textiles, the manufacturing and dyeing of
fabrics is chemically intensive.

A Thirsty, Needy Plant

Cotton is the world's most commonly used natural fibre and is in nearly
40 percent of our clothing. It is also one of the most chemically

7|Page
dependent crops in the world. While only 2.4 percent of the world's
cropland is planted with cotton, it consumes 10 percent of all
agricultural chemicals and 25 percent of insecticides.
Organic cotton is a much more sustainable alternative, but today it is
only about one percent of all the cotton grown worldwide and quite
expensive to grow compared to conventional cotton. It is not without
its downsides, however. Organic cotton still needs large amounts of
water and the clothing made from it may still be dyed with chemicals
and shipped globally, meaning that there's still a big carbon footprint
with cotton garments carrying the “organic" tag.

Clothes to Dye for?

More than half trillion gallons of fresh water are used in the dyeing of
textiles each year. The dye wastewater is discharged, often untreated,
into nearby rivers, where it reaches the sea, eventually spreading
around the globe.
Clothing manufacturers dump their chemicals into the rivers, making
the rivers nothing more than an open sewer containing with lead,
mercury, arsenic and a host of other toxins. Disturbing amounts of
nonylphenol, an endocrine disruptor, which can be deadly to aquatic
life is found as the garment industries dispose chemicals. And also,
water becomes highly alkaline in nature.
New technologies, such as waterless dye technologies have been
developed, but have not yet been deployed at most manufacturing
sites. The textile industry, which has been using copious amounts of
water to dye garments for hundreds of years, may be reluctant to
embrace this change. After all, this new technology is expensive to
install and only works on certain fabrics.

8|Page
Sustainable Fashion
Sustainable fashion means using fibres not grown or produced with
damaging chemicals, and fabrics not coloured with harsh dyes and
paints. In summary, ‘Eco’ friendly clothing means:

 Clothing made of fibres such as Piña

 Clothing that has been organically dyed with vegetables
 Fabrics that use small amounts of precious water to grow, such
as hemp and bamboo.

Figure 1

9|Page
PIÑA FABRIC

HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF PIÑA

Piña fibre is the ingenious fabric derived from the leaves of the Spanish
Red Pineapple and is the finest of all Philippine hand-woven fabrics.
Pineapple fibres are an ivory-white colour and naturally glossy. This
delicate and dreamy cloth is translucent, soft and fine with a high
lustre.
Since piña fabric is hand loomed by only a few weavers, it is very
precious and scarce, which also makes it expensive. The major end use
of Piña fibre is the Barong Tagalog, wedding dresses and other
traditional Philippine formal dress. It is also used for table linens, mats,
bags and other clothing items.

Figure
Fig. 2
-2.1

PLANTATION
Spanish Red or Native Philippine Red pineapple variety takes about 18
months to reach maturity. They thrive best in open fields with sandy
clay soil. The pineapple plant grows spiny leaves up to two meters in
length. It is said that the leaves of these varieties yield excellent fibres

10 | P a g e
for handweaving. After about a year from planting, three to five leaves
are cut from each plant.

Fig -2.2
Figure 3

FIBRE EXTRACTION PROCESS

Piña comes from a leaf; the leaf has to be cut first from the plant. Then
the fibre is pulled or split away from the leaf. Each strand of the piña
fibre is hand scraped and is knotted one by one to form a continuous
filament to be handwoven and then made into a piña cloth. The green
epidermal layer is scraped off the leaf with tools made from coconut
shells, coconut husks or pottery shards. Extraction from the long, stiff
leaves is time consuming and labour intensive. These fibres are then
spun into soft, shimmering fabrics by hand. Because the fibre is fine
and breaks easily, working with it is slow and tedious. Workers are
constantly knotting broken threads. The result is a lightweight,
transparent fabric that is positively beautiful.

Fig -2.3.1
Figure 4 Fig -2.3.2
Figure 5

11 | P a g e
COMBING
All the fibres are combed to clean them further (usually by the river
since it is believed that its water makes the strands whiter) and render
them easy for hand knotting into continuous strands. Since the
individual stripped fibre is no longer than 30 inches, the fibres have to
be knotted. This process is known in the dialect as Pag-Panug-Ot, an
utterly delicate and laborious task. A piece of bamboo is fashioned into
a blade to cut off the end of each knot.

Figure 6

WARPING
The next step is warping. This is done on pegs struck in a board.
Another laborious step, it usually takes 15 to 20 days to warp enough
yarns to complete a “Sucod” of 18 to 20 “Bucos” or 54 to 60 meters of
cloth.

Figure 7

12 | P a g e
SPINNING
Pag-Talinyas or spinning is likewise executed with a crude hand-
operated bobbin winder which is turned by the right hand while the
left hand drills the strand into a tiny mould made of reed or Tabun-Ak.

Figure 8

WEAVING
This process makes the material ready for the loom. The loom has foot-
operated treadle with an extended overhead warp beam with two
harnesses and two treadles. The warp is wound into the warp beam.
Then it is treaded into the boddle (benting) reed or Sucod. The benting
allows the warp to open when the treadle is stepped on the feet. The
sucod is used to press the weft to thicken the cloth.The thickness and
width of the cloth is determined by the Sucod. There are the 65, 70 and
80 types of winder. For instance, the 65 sucod produces a cloth of
about 24 inches in width; 70 sucod, 29 inches, and the 80 sucod, 31 to
32 inches.

Figure 9

13 | P a g e
DYEING
Dyeing the fibre to any desired colour may be executed at this point.
Normally piña is beige or dirty white or ecru but dyed piña produces
blue or black piña cloth. These hand-woven fabrics are coloured with
vegetable dyes originating from leaves, and bark of different trees. The
result is equally dramatic and charming.

Figure 10

EMBROIDERY
In the olden days, the weavers decided on their own design. The
designs usually took the form of flowers, fruits, coconut trees, nipa huts
or other designs concocted by the weaver’s imagination. The designs
may have been copied from cloths, which have already been designed
or inlaid into the fabric with the aid of a graphing paper. In the case of
the latter, the design is made on the warp. The traditional decoration
for this fabric is a style of hand embroidery called Calado. An
embroidered piña garment is called Piña Calado. It takes 8 hours to
finish one meter of plain weave cloth, and only one-half to three
quarters of a meter may be finished if the cloth has a design. The
amount of time spent on the cloth depends on the intricacy of the
design. Piña cloth weaving reached its peak of perfection in the late
18th century and in the first half of the 19th century.

Figure 11

14 | P a g e
PRODUCTION & AVAILABILITY
The piña fibre and cloth industries are centred in Aklan. Aklan is the
main and the oldest manufacturer/weaver of piña cloth in the
Philippines. But in recent years, Negros Oriental and Palawan started
its own cultivation of pineapple plant of the Red Spanish variety from
Aklan aside from conducting skills training program on fibre extraction
and weaving. The Aklan piña cloth is woven from the finest mature
leaves of native pineapples. Pineapple silk is considered the queen of
Philippine fabrics and is considered the fabric of choice of the
Philippine elite. Today, piña cloth is being exported to various parts of
the world most particularly North America and Europe.

Figure 12

PRICING
1.5-2.0 USD/ Rs 97.48- 129.97 for 1 metre cloth @Alibaba.com

15 | P a g e
PIÑATEX

HISTORY AND ORIGIN

In 2013, Piñatex™ was created by Dr. Carmen Hijosa, founder of
London based start-up Ananas Anam, which manufactures it. She
worked in both the design and manufacture of leather goods for many
years before she began research into the development of products
made from natural fibres. She wanted to bridge the gap between
leather and petroleum-based leather alternatives with the goal of
developing textiles using only processes that enhance the well-being of
the planet through the entire life cycle of the products.
A big breakthrough came when she realized that she could make a
non-woven textile (a fabric bonded together without knitting or
weaving) from the long fibres found in pineapple leaves. The
culmination of her work resulted in the creation of Piñatex, a unique
natural and sustainable textile made from pineapple leaf fibres, a by-
product from the pineapple harvest.

Figure 13

16 | P a g e
LEAF HARVESTING
The fabric is produced using the leaves of pineapples in the harvesting
process, a waste that needs to be eliminated. In pineapple plantations
it remains on the ground or can be converted into organic fertilizer or
biogas. By the use of leaves to produce leather it is possible to value
this waste in a perspective of circular economy, saving environmental
costs and bringing advantages to the local economy.
To produce one square meter of leather approximately 480 leaves are
required, the fallout of about 16 pineapples. This production process
can be a great economic advantage for a tropical country like the
Philippines, where almost three million tonnes of pineapple are
produced annually.

Figure 14

DECORTICATION
The fibres that make Piñatex™ come from pineapple leaves from the
Philippines. The fibres are extracted from the leaves during a process
called decortication, which is done at the plantation by the farming

17 | P a g e
community. Furthermore, the by-product of decortication is bio-mass,
which can be further converted into organic fertilizer or bio-gas. Both
the extraction of the fibres and the consequent bio-mass will bring
added revenue stream to the farming communities.

Figure 15

WASHING
All these fibres are combed to clean them further (usually by the river
since it is believed that its water makes the strands whiter) and render
them easy for hand knotting into continuous strands. Since the
individual stripped fibre is no longer than 30 inches, the fibres have to
be knotted.

Figure 16

18 | P a g e
DRYING
After the fibres are washed then they are tied on ropes to dry in the
open air for the removal of moisture content in the fibres.

Figure 17

DEGUMMING
Then the fibres get degummed that is the removal of gum or resin from
the fibres that are decorticated from the pineapple leaves. Removing
the gum improves the sheen, colour, hand and texture of the fibres
because the gum can serve as a protective layer.

Figure 18

19 | P a g e
NON-WOVEN
After the fibres are degummed, then they undergo an industrial
process to become a non-woven mesh, which forms a base of Piñatex.
The rolls of non-woven mesh are then transported to Spain for
specialized finishing.

Figure 19

FINISHING
Now, the fibres are sent to Spain for final finishing. This unique
process is what gives Piñatex its leather like appearance, creating a
textile that is soft and flexible, yet very durable.

Figure 20

20 | P a g e
FINISHED TEXTILE
The finished textile is distributed to designer directly by the
production company, who use it as a sustainable alternative to
leather in footwear and fashion accessories, clothing, interior
furnishing and automotive upholstery.

Figure 21

PRICING
Natural Piñatex comes in four colour variants Natural, Charcoal, Brown
and Paprika which costs 45 Euros/Rs 3637 for 1 linear metre.
While Piñatex Oro which is an alternate for PVC, comes in two colour
variants Gold and Silver which costs 53 Euros/Rs. 4284 for 1 linear
metre.

Figure 22

21 | P a g e
PROPERTIES OF PIÑATEX
This innovative leather is a strong, versatile, breathable, soft, light,
flexible textile that can be used for the production of shoes, bags,
clothes and hats. It can also be used in interiors, furnishings and the car
and aeronautic industries.
Piñatex has been tested according to ISO international standards for:
Seam rupture; Tear & tensile strength; Light & colour fastness; Water
spotting; Flexing endurance; Abrasion resistance; Resistance to ignition
by cigarettes.

LIFE CYCLE OF PIÑATEX

Figure 23

22 | P a g e
CONCLUSION

 Piña is made from the leaves of the pineapple plant, the by-
product of the fruit industry, which are traditionally discarded or
burned. Adding value to this waste has created a new source of
income for farming communities who otherwise rely on a
seasonal harvest. Once the fibre has been stripped from the leaf
the leftover biomass is retained to use as a natural fertilizer or
biofuel, offering a further economic prospect.

 Production of Piña supports rural communities by working

directly with farming cooperatives to create an additional stream
of income to pineapple farmers. Piña mainly comes from
Philippines and other pineapple growing countries, supporting
their local economies and strengthening their exports.

 With the fast-evolving sustainable fashion industry, these types

of fibres represent the ‘Three P’s of Sustainability: Piña, Preserve
and Planet’.

23 | P a g e
BIBLIOGRAPHY

 www.treehugger.com

 www.guardian.com

 textiletoday.com.bd

 www.cool-organic-clothing.com

 philippinefolklifemuseum.org

 edis.ifas.ufl.edu

 etsy.com

 Alibaba.com

 www.hfscollective.com

 www.ideasonline.org

 www.philfida.da.gov.ph

 www.ananas-anam.com

24 | P a g e