Nottingham Trent University student creates garment using fish skin

Nottingham Trent University fashion design student Beatrice Hill has created a garment using salmon skin that has been transformed into a leather material.

Hill made a corset and a leather belt bag out of fish skin to highlight the benefits to the environment of using by-products of the food industry instead of faux materials.

The salmon skin was treated with natural substances consisting of glycerine and water, and to remove the odor of the fish, she cleaned the skin with eco-lemon washing-up liquid.

The corset was not designed to be skin-tight, it was made to be worn as an outer garment, and it was created using ten fish skins while the inside was lined with lamb leather.

Hill said in a statement: “Research shows that creating fake leather is worse for the planet in terms of carbon emissions than using materials that are otherwise ethical and sustainably available.

“A lot of good quality fish skin - which is sustainably farmed - is thrown away, but could be put to use. The world is not going to stop eating fish any time soon, and so it’s reasonable for by-products of the food industry to be used in this way.

Lee Mattocks, senior lecturer in Fashion Design at Nottingham Trent University, explained: “Beatrice has communicated a powerful and important message here in relation to clothing and sustainability, particularly as a vegetarian herself who cares for animals.

“By creating a fish leather corset, made entirely from ethically and sustainably farmed fish, she is demonstrating how beautiful garments of almost any kind can be made from by-products of the food industry, with a minimal impact on the environment.”