There's Something Fishy In Fashion - Literally

mdoyle4387
Apr 15
3 min read

Updated: Apr 22

Laura Casiglia, a fashion designer from Sydney, has been cooking up something fishy in her designs. Fish leather.

"I actually first saw someone on TikTok who had developed garments out of leather, but their page was pretty vague on the actual process. I fell into a bit of a rabbit hole with research on it and I found that a lot of indigenous tribes have been practicing it for years."

The Ainu of Japan, the Hezhen of northeastern China, the Nivkh of Siberia, the Inuit of northern Canada, and several people indigenous to Alaska, including the Alutiiq, Athabascan, and Yup’ik, incorporate fish skin leather into their clothing, shoes and containers.

"I use salmon skins, which is a by-product of what the sell in the fish markets. They get rid of all the skins at the end of the day and i just go over and pick them up."

This is ethical and sustainable because salmon is very popular in street fish markets. the waste skins would either end up in a bin to be discarded of 'who knows where and how' or they could be used for something practical, like clothes.

"There were lots of pictures on you tube, pattern pdfs, that helped me figure out this process; I found bits and pieces from everywhere and just put them all together to get my end goal."

"I've done tons of experimenting, it took about two months to really solidify the black tea method, and I’ve tried to do it so many different ways."

Laura also tried other methods like glycerine and alcohol, alum and salt, enzymes and eggs to try and turn the skins into leather, but black tea was the strongest method to make them thick and sturdy enough to use and get be able to create the designs she wanted.

"I liked the colour the black tea makes it too."

Unlike traditional leather, it challenges our assumptions about value and sustainability, asking why we continue to rely on resource heavy materials when viable alternatives already exist. As fashion increasingly turns toward circular practices, fish leather becomes more than a novelty; it represents a shift in mindset, where design begins not with extraction, but with reimagining what we already have.

"The smell is what people always ask about. Basically, if you clean them well enough in the first step it doesn't smell really at all. you have to de-scale and remove all the meat from the skins and then wash them in detergent and water with a little bit of salt, and once you do that wash it doesn't really smell."

"The tea penetrates the fibres and preserves it which is what turns it into leather. It's a slow process with the black tea; it’s not using any invasive chemicals to speed up the process."

When compared to both traditional leather and synthetic alternatives, fish leather produced using black tea highlights a striking shift in how materials can be made. Conventional leather relies on resource intensive processes, like livestock farming, chemical tanning, and heavy water use. Faux leather, often derived from plastics like polyurethane or PVC, carries its own environmental cost through fossil fuel extraction and microplastic pollution.

In contrast, treating discarded fish skins with natural agents such as black tea which is rich in tannins, offers a lower impact method of preservation and transformation. This process not only reduces waste but also reclaims an age-old, plant-based technique, suggesting that innovation in fashion does not always require new materials, but rather a rethinking of how we use what already exists.

"The piece took about 40 skins to make, but the trial and error for that one top was so treacherous. I completely flopped the first batch because when it was drying it was in a wet environment, so what was 40 skins. Then I did another 40 where I tried to use a different method of turning them into leather with an acid and it just disintegrated."

Salmon skin leather stained and cured with black tea

"This is the only sustainable garment I have made so far but I'm currently experimenting with bioplastics which is where you make your own plastic with glycerine and corn starch and its biodegradable."