From the Lab: ClimaFibre

Model wearing ClimaFibre / Source: Jess Redgrave

EuropeTextiles

3 MINUTE READ

8 Aug 2024
Mayer Nissim

For her final MA thesis, Jess Redgrave looked to the humble sunflower to create a new organic fashion fibre.

The sunflower oil industry is worth around USD 20 billion and we already use the plant for fodder and food, so why not fashion? Enter ClimaFibre. Rather than just the leaves, stalks or seeds in isolation, founder Redgrave is using the whole sunflower to shake up the industry, reducing waste throughout the sunflower oil industry while also limiting the impact of the fast fashion industry. “I find comfort in contemplating the sunflowers,” Van Gogh once said. Looking at its revolutionary potential, so do we.

Sunflower fibre / Source: Jess Redgrave

Sunflower pigments / Source: Jess Redgrave

WHAT IS CLIMAFIBRE?

ClimaFibre isn’t just a single product but a whole range of fashion industry alternatives, all obtained from sunflowers with nothing going to waste.

Bacterial and fungal-derived enzymes are used to draw out Cellulose from sunflowers for use in textiles. Fibres are extracted in a similar way to traditional flax and Hemp processing, though Redgrave has developed her own unique enzyme retting process to release the cellulose fibres from the sunflower stem. These fibres can be spun, woven or knitted into textiles. A hydrophobic coating has also been developed, using a byproduct from the sunflower oil industry. The coating is water-resistant without impacting the breathability of natural fabrics. The range is completed with a selection of colourful pigments, all derived from the seeds, petals and leaves of the sunflower, extracted using existing technology. The dyes can be used as both textile dyes and in printing.

All three products are still in the testing phase, completely free from plastic and compostable. Redgrave is waiting on test results to find out the optimum conditions and just how long degradation will take.

Sunflower fabric in use / Source: Jess Redgrave via Jack Johnstone

WHAT PROBLEM IS CLIMAFIBRE SOLVING?

Fibres derived from organic material such as sunflowers don’t use petrochemicals, don’t shed microplastics, and break down into key nutrients at the end of their useful life, making ClimaFibre a future mainstay of the fibre toolkit.

As a plant, sunflowers are grown without fertilisers, something organic crops such as cotton rely on, leading to poor soil health and ecosystem management issues. Sunflowers can also be rotated, or grown alongside food crops, allowing for greater biodiversity and a reduction in soil depleting monocultures.

Waterproof textile coatings are traditionally plastic, and while solutions such as wax and lanolin exist, a sunflower-based coating suggests a new world of plastic-free, animal-free waterproofing properties.

Finally, synthetic dyes are an environmental disaster – from water use to toxic runoff. Natural dyes have long existed but vary in quality, so the prospect of sunflower dyes is an exciting one, assuming their performance can be proven.