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Ep 2: From Garden waste to Leather with Daniela Rondinone
367 Plays1 year ago
Who doesn’t love a beautiful leather jacket or bag. Sadly, the leather industry’s high water and chemical waste from the tanning process is extremely polluting. And faux leather is made from polyurethane and plastics. So can we ever use leather products without feeling guilty?
Join me as I find out from Daniela Rondinone, the Business and Operations Manager at Biophilica, all about alternative leather that is plastic free and recyclable. Learn about how autumn leaves are transformed into leather that seems to bring the best of both natural and faux leather industries together into one perfect solution.
Daniela also highlights the qualities and skills you need to be a textile researcher and innovator.
Find out more here
TreeKind at Biophilica:
https://www.biophilica.co.uk/treekind
Daniela Rondinone:
https://daniela.rondinone.info/
Connect with Mili Tharakan:
Insta: @noordinarycloth
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back everyone to another episode of No Ordinary Cloth where we talk about the fascinating world of textiles and the people who are pushing its boundaries to bring us some of the most advanced fabrics that will change the very meaning, role and function of textiles as we know it. I'm your host Millie Parakin and I'm passionate about all things textiles. I've been a smart textile maker for over 15 years where I've seen the future of textiles in the making.
00:00:28
Speaker
This podcast will give you a glimpse into that future where there are no ordinary cloth.
Guest Introduction: Daniela Rondinone
00:00:33
Speaker
On today's episode, I am so pleased to introduce you to Daniela Rondinone, a friend and fellow textile geek. She has such a range of experience right from fashion design, smart textiles, and bio textiles. But on today's show, she is going to tell us all about her current work with a company that is turning garden and green waste into
Daniela's Educational and Career Journey
00:00:55
Speaker
leather.
00:00:55
Speaker
Yes, you heard that right, so stay with us to find out more. Daniella completed an undergrad in Textiles and Apparel Design from Palmaro University in 2014, and then became the first-ever apparel designer in Argentina to get the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship in Science and Technology to study her Masters in Textile Engineering at North Carolina State University in the U.S.
00:01:20
Speaker
Currently, Daniella lives in the UK and is the business and operations manager at Biofilica, a London-based startup dedicated to the manufacture of leather alternatives. Let's dive right in and speak to Daniella. Daniella, it is an absolute pleasure to have you with us today. Thank you so much for your time. I can't wait to dive in about the exciting work you do right now, but before that, I would love to hear a bit about yourself.
Integrating Fashion and Healthcare
00:01:45
Speaker
Where are you from and how did you get interested in working with textiles?
00:01:49
Speaker
First of all, thank you so much for inviting me to your podcast. I'm really excited to share my journey on textiles. I'm originally from Argentina, specifically from Buenos Aires. I did my bachelor's in design in textiles and apparel. And during that time I gather knowledge in different areas of designing garments. I started exploring textile techniques mainly for the aesthetics part of it.
00:02:17
Speaker
And when I was about to finish my degree, I had to do a graduation project. And as part of that, I did the research on proposing the use of image consulting for helping patients that face bariatric surgery. So during that time, I got really interested in using or combining fashion and healthcare to disciplines that seem really different, but that can be very collaborative. And how can you use.
00:02:47
Speaker
fashion and textiles for a good use. And yeah, that was a really exciting project for me. Years after that, I started my own business on doing that image consulting
Smart Textiles for Medical Use
00:02:58
Speaker
service. But at some point I felt that my knowledge in fashion could really benefit from having deeper knowledge on technical textiles. And I also realized that if I wanted to
00:03:11
Speaker
make a bigger impact on patients' quality of life, a bigger exploration on how can you use materials for more healthcare applications. I knew I had to go down the route of technical textiles. That's why I pursued my Master of Science in textiles.
00:03:30
Speaker
I remember we spoke back in 2020 and you had just graduated from your master's in the US and where you had been researching smart textiles. Could you share a bit about your interest in smart textiles and what you did? Back then it was a more noble thing. So that was the first thing that got my interest into it. I was also curious to see how two disciplines that seem so different such as textiles and electronic could be combined together.
00:03:58
Speaker
And also during that time, I was already very interested in combining textiles for medical applications. And the fact that you could put sensors into a textile material for me was really interesting because when you think about using textiles for healthcare applications, you need to think about that there would be a patient that might be your final customer.
Overcoming Challenges in Textile Design
00:04:23
Speaker
But then there's also a healthcare professional that's treating that patient. So the fact that you could put different sensors that would collect data and that the healthcare professional could use that data to better treat the patient to me was a really interesting
00:04:40
Speaker
idea and I saw a lot of potential in that. Amazing. I know that what took you to the US was a Fulbright scholarship in science and technology, and you were the first ever Argentinian apparel designer to receive this amazing scholarship. How did that happen? How did you feel back then, especially because it's a science and technology scholarship? Tell us a bit about that experience. Yeah, I think it's one of my greatest accomplishments.
00:05:07
Speaker
accomplishments personally. And at that time I was living in Argentina. I had finished my bachelor's degree. I had been working for a few years and I wanted to do a master's in textile engineering. And back home we don't have that type of degree yet. So I started looking into options and the US seemed like a really good place to do that. But of course tuition costs are high.
00:05:32
Speaker
And especially coming from Argentina, that was very challenging. Yeah, I kept thinking I still want to do this. So how can this happen? And I started reaching out to different organizations and I found out about this type of scholarship. And to be able to pursue these scholarships, you need to take different exams. One of those being the GRE that has a lot of components in mathematics and geometry. And yeah, it was really... Wow.
00:05:57
Speaker
tough work going through all that process. And yeah, I just kept researching information, studying from books, kind of talking to previous scholars that went through the same journey. And I applied to different scholarships. And I finally got that one in science and technology. And when I entered into the group with the other scholars, I realized I was the only apparel designer, but it was very
00:06:24
Speaker
motivating for me also to know that I could open the path to other students with similar backgrounds and to motivate other students. And in the sense that just because you didn't study a STEM degree in your bachelor's, that doesn't mean you cannot pursue certain master programs. And yeah, it's just a matter of just keep trying and studying and
00:06:47
Speaker
looking for the information and yeah, don't being afraid of applying. Yeah. That's amazing, Daniela. And that's the story I'm hoping listeners take away is that sort of drive and perseverance that you need when you're setting off into sort of pushing the boundaries of your industry.
From Fashion to Technical Textiles
00:07:06
Speaker
And in this case, it's textiles and you wanted to do more research and you didn't see the hurdles in front of you as sort of big barriers, but something that you could
00:07:16
Speaker
teach yourself, that drive to overcome it. I love that. And I can see that being a really core part of you that takes you into all the different routes that you've taken in textiles. I mean, you've done such varied work. It's really incredible, really amazing. One thing, sorry, I wanted to add on the previous point was the fact that I feel like it's really important also to identify which knowledge from your previous experience you can bring onto the next thing. So initially when you say,
00:07:46
Speaker
you have a degree in fashion, some people think it's not something that serious or that it's like a degree, but when you think about it, the knowledge you need for creating a garment from going from a two-dimensional plane to a three-dimensional plane, all the construction techniques, it's a really engineering
00:08:09
Speaker
If you think about it, because a lot of geometry math, so in a way it wasn't that far away as you would think.
00:08:16
Speaker
You're right. In people's world, fashion and engineering are so separated. But if you really boil it down, there's so many overlaps and that I think is also what enabled you to transition into smart textiles.
Biotextiles and Leather Alternatives
00:08:28
Speaker
Currently you're working, again, you've sort of moved from smart textiles into bio textiles. This might be a new term for people listening in, bio textiles. What is it? And what are the most exciting developments that you've seen in this space?
00:08:43
Speaker
Biotextiles can get different definitions depending on the context you use it. I feel like the two main categories that we can see nowadays is one in terms of the world of leather alternatives and using materials that come from nature or from different microorganisms to give life to a new material.
00:09:08
Speaker
And then there's other whole category, which is super interesting, which is the use of biomaterials for healthcare applications. So it's using, for example, textiles into implantable devices and those materials then get integrated into human tissue and can promote healing and can promote tissue regeneration. So quite different, maybe one of them has more to do with
00:09:34
Speaker
microbiology and cell and culture and things like that. Whereas the other, it's more an external material, but I feel like both are really interesting. I've seen some interesting projects on using 3D printing, for example, for producing one dressings. So in that way, you start seeing all these new areas of research being used together.
00:09:59
Speaker
So we talked about fashion, then you brought in, you know, geometry and engineering and electronics. And now you're talking about bringing in biology as well, which is fascinating. Could you give us a couple of like specific examples of sort of your favorite projects that you've seen out there or research, interesting research that you're keeping an eye on in the space of biotextiles?
00:10:24
Speaker
I would say, especially with how recently we were impacted by COVID, I think that promoted more advances in the field of antimicrobial textiles. So that concept would be combining material science with microbiology and infusing textile materials with different agents that can then promote or
00:10:47
Speaker
inhibit the growth of different microorganisms that can produce infections.
Biophilica: Plastic-Free Leather
00:10:52
Speaker
So that it's kind of one example that we also during the pandemic, yeah, that particular example, I think it's really interesting. Currently you work with a company called Biophilica. Yes. Could you elaborate a bit more about the company who founded it and what is its vision and what does the company do?
00:11:12
Speaker
Yes, so the company was founded around 2019 by Mira, she's the CEO, and it was created with the aim of bringing to the market a leather alternative that would be completely free of plastic. At the point where the company was created, leather alternatives were already emerging in the market. We also saw some examples like materials made with microorganisms like mycelium and things like that.
00:11:41
Speaker
This company Biophilica, the main proposition is bringing a material that wouldn't have any plastic. It's quite common for certain leather alternatives to use PU coatings or certain layers of plastic because that material brings certain properties to the final leather alternative. But in doing so, it's hard then to make the final material fully compostable.
00:12:09
Speaker
So the main difference about biofilica is the fact that every single layer of the material is completely free of plastic from the coating to the core material called trichine to the adhesive. And even the textile backing is also made of natural fibers. Amazing. So that is a really good material for brands to use. You talk about leather alternatives and maybe again, that might be a new term for a lot of people. Could you define what that means?
00:12:38
Speaker
So initially we are all familiar with the use of natural leather, which is the skin from different animals that then is used to manufacture bags, belts and footwear and different accessories. And then some decades ago in another type of material emerged, which we started calling synthetic leathers, that would be a material that
00:13:02
Speaker
is intended to look like leather and to act like leather, but it's made of plastic that it's given the shape of a leather like material and it has a textile backing. And then recently we saw this kind of third category that we are calling leather alternatives. And these are materials that intend to replicate the look and feel of leather, but without using plastic.
Biophilica's Innovative Process
00:13:27
Speaker
So instead of using a polymer, all these different companies that were in the market
00:13:32
Speaker
are trying to use other components to give a material that has the look and feel of leather, but that doesn't come from animals, basically. Right. Due to confidentiality concerns, I understand that you can't share the details of how you make alternative leather at Biophilica.
00:13:52
Speaker
But would you be able to give us an overview of the process of how you start with an autumn leaf and end up with a beautiful roll of plastic-free leather alternative? What are the steps involved and what do you get at the end? Yes, the main production process developed by Mira, the CEO of the company, was using, in addition to having a
00:14:16
Speaker
completely free of plastic material. She thought of during this process using different materials that would otherwise end up as waste. So she initially in the first iterations, she used autumn leaves from London parks. And then you would kind of chop that into tiny pieces. And then obviously you need to combine it with other ingredients because on its own, you cannot form a material. And the journey she and the whole
00:14:46
Speaker
technical team embraced into was looking into which other natural ingredients could be used for giving the properties you need on the type of material. So as part of that different natural components are used. And then also one advantage of the material is that as part of those ingredients are added to the waste components, different pigments are used, natural pigments as well to give color so that you don't need to do
00:15:16
Speaker
It's an in-process at the end as you would do with natural leather. During that process is where you need to use a lot of water and energy. So the fact that you can completely eliminate that part is really interesting. And then you end up with some sort of paste that then you combine with a textile backing and adhesive to kind of adhere everything together. That's kind of in a summary. It's more complex than that, but yeah, as a summary to give like the general idea.
00:15:47
Speaker
Perfect. I mean, I've seen and touched and held the samples that you have of these leather alternative and it's absolutely gorgeous. I saw some bags that you've made. It's hard to tell that it's not, you know, the regular leather that we're used to. So the quality is absolutely amazing.
00:16:06
Speaker
Some of the main advantages of alternative leather is not relying on slaughtered animals for hide, using less water, as you mentioned, because the tanning process is eliminated altogether. What are some of the other properties and advantages of using alternative leather? Yeah, so the fact that different to leather, where you have the skin and then you can apply different treatments only, the fact that with these materials, you develop a whole formulation.
00:16:36
Speaker
in each material iteration or in each category of products means that you have a lot of room for customizing that material. So you can have a lot of room for adding properties. You can make it softer. You can make it feel stiffer. You can change different surfaces only on the surface of the material. So there's a lot of room for customizing and adapting it to adopt different touch and feel.
00:17:05
Speaker
But I think my favorite one is the fact that you have less waste when you do products. So if you think about natural leather, when we compare it to that, natural leather comes from an animal and it has a certain shape that's irregular. And within that height, what you would call it, you have different qualities. So if you need it to create a certain product, it's likely that
00:17:32
Speaker
There's a lot of parts that you are not going to be able to use. Also, leather from animals can have defects that come from certain properties of the body of that animal. And with this type of material, you have a more regular shape so you can make a better use when you think about doing product development and having patterns cut into it. You can also have a consistent quality and you can have different thicknesses so you have
00:18:01
Speaker
not only a better use of the whole material when doing product development, but also you can have more opportunities for customization. So you get in a way the benefits that you already have with PU and PVC where you have a material that comes in a row, but you are closer in look and feel to natural leather.
00:18:25
Speaker
You kind of get the best of both worlds in my opinion. Yeah. Fantastic. But how does this leather age? Say this leather after five years, 10 years, is there been a way of testing how the leather ages over time? What we do is we work with brands that use our material for developing their products. So most of the testing we perform is at the material level.
00:18:50
Speaker
And that being said, we have done a lot of internal and with external laboratories testing on mechanical properties. So flex testing and tensile testing and things like that. And with those type of testing, you do repeated movements over and over. So in a way you kind of simulate, yeah, the way the samples look after many cycles on those machines is very similar to what you would expect.
00:19:17
Speaker
on leather. So that's the comparison we make. And yeah, we feel fairly happy with the result.
00:19:23
Speaker
That's fantastic. It's so exciting that we've got something that is so close to the actual properties and qualities of real leather. That's quite an achievement and all of that is made out of waste material. You mentioned that this process of leathermaking started with autumn leaves found in London parks. Now that you're starting to scale up and demand has increased for your product, where are you sourcing large volumes of autumn leaves that you need? Fortunately, there's a huge quantity of those
00:19:52
Speaker
within the UK, but we have also started to explore other types of waste. Naturally, each waste gives you different properties and other materials. So one area we started to explore is using agricultural waste. That would be, for example, waste that ends up as part of the broccoli or tomato production. And we would use only the bits of the production process that are not used for human consumption. So, of course,
00:20:21
Speaker
I fit like a food item. We believe that people should have that for eating so we don't want to take that away. It's mainly the stems and leaves and that sort of parts that nobody wants to use. So we take whatever nobody can use for anything and we turn that into the material.
Collaboration in Material Science
00:20:38
Speaker
So the process seems flexible enough to handle different types of waste material as well.
00:20:44
Speaker
Oh, I love that. A perfect solution to leather. What sort of teams, disciplines come together and collaborate to create these kinds of new materials?
00:20:55
Speaker
Yeah, so that's very interesting. In our company, for example, you have different disciplines working together. For example, we have expertise in material science, in chemistry, but also in engineering, because it's not only about the formulation, but it's about getting that formulation into
00:21:15
Speaker
an actual product that needs to be produced using machinery and needs to maintain certain qualities. Also textiles, that's kind of where I support a lot into the team. It's really important when you think about a leather alternative as a material that has a textile backing. So there's a lot of behavior of textile materials that's very specific and you benefit from having those disciplines. And then as with any type of company, you interact with
00:21:44
Speaker
the business side, communications, marketing, the fact that we develop a material and we work with a lot of luxury brands, aesthetics play a big role. So you also need to be aware of that. I mean, I always am a big believer of cross-disciplinary collaboration and that's what you need to do, I think, to find the best solutions. With new materials, there are also new tools and machinery that needs to be produced. In this case with Biophilica,
00:22:11
Speaker
Have you had to manufacture machines as well that is able to turn the solution that you make into leather or are you able to use existing machinery and tweak it a bit to get the results that you need?
00:22:26
Speaker
I would say both, both apply the fact that as you say these are new materials means that sometimes existing equipment will be useful, but other times you need to customize that or you need to build your own equipment. So I feel like that's one of the key challenges for all these new materials. The fact that
00:22:48
Speaker
certain leather alternatives have been in the market for some time, it helps
Scaling Production and Industry Challenges
00:22:53
Speaker
a lot. I was recently visiting Itma and I spoke with a lot of manufacturers and a lot of them were really familiar with this type of materials and even working with some of our competitors. So I feel that helps a lot. Yeah, that means there's more awareness and they
00:23:12
Speaker
start building experience in working with similar formulations or similar challenges. Yeah, it's good to see the whole industry sort of aligning slowly towards these new materials and getting that supply chain process put in place so that this becomes a much more easily scalable, producible material.
00:23:31
Speaker
What are some of the key challenges, if any, in scaling up such a solution? It's easy to make sort of small batches and volumes, but the hope is that one day we can replace old natural leather and house your companies specifically trying to overcome them. Yeah. So I would say the key challenge is what we were just discussing is the machinery. There's a lot of innovative solutions. You can come up at the laboratory level and some minor tweaks, but
00:24:00
Speaker
transferring that into a bigger scale. That's where the challenges come. I would say probably also another challenge is the fact that there are no degrees in university for having experts in letter alternatives. So you need to be quite creative in coming up with these teams that have different areas of expertise that can all work together.
00:24:22
Speaker
towards that. So yeah, the way we work around that is doing a lot of collaborative work, having a wide range of areas of expertise within the company. And then in terms of the scale up, we try to work really closely with manufacturers and suppliers. So yeah, visiting exhibitions like ITMA and then having a lot of calls and site visits with these companies really help.
00:24:46
Speaker
in trying to find the proper machinery or customize some of the existing equipment in order to produce bigger quantities. Has there been a need to start developing standards for the industry? Because I do see a lot of alternative leather options coming up these days.
00:25:04
Speaker
And just as a consumer, you don't really know what difference is, if it's got plastic in it or not. Is there some work towards helping consumers understand the difference between these biotech styles, but also alternative leather? I think we would need dedicated standards. I haven't seen any particular committees working on that in one of the main kind of textile organizations, whether it's ATC or
00:25:29
Speaker
like similar groups, maybe there is, but I feel like that's a huge need because when you think about these materials, they don't fall into the traditional categories. So if you were to use standards made for natural leather, it wouldn't be a fair comparison or a fair target. That's what most of the companies in this area end up using. And that's what usually the brands request, but it's not quite the same.
00:25:56
Speaker
I feel like in the next couple of years, we should have dedicated standards, especially considering the huge amount of brands emerging, companies emerging in this area. I feel like we need standards that particularly consider leather alternative that's not made of PU or that doesn't come from a real animal and that has the textile backing. Yeah, I think there's a real need. Maybe somebody, hopefully somebody's already working on it.
00:26:23
Speaker
What does the end of life process look like for a material like this? Yeah, the fact that we deliver the material to the brand means that we don't have full control of what happens in that case, but from our work and from what we can do, we make sure that we only use natural ingredients in every single layer of the material. That means that you can end up with a fully compostable material. Amazing.
00:26:52
Speaker
That's the thing that also creates some confusion. So if you make a product from this material and you go out on the street and it rains, it doesn't mean that your bag will fall apart. It means that if you put the material into certain conditions with soil and microorganisms, then those
00:27:12
Speaker
that environment and those microorganisms would be able to break down the material.
Market Interest in Sustainable Materials
00:27:17
Speaker
I think that's an important thing to differentiate. I'm imagining I've had my leather bag for 15 years and then I just chuck it into my home compost bin and it could do the job and it's done. There's no waste produced. Amazing. What kind of industries have you seen the most traction from for bio leather? I have seen a lot of interest from luxury brands.
00:27:41
Speaker
They seem really keen in this type of new materials and also a lot of interest from more smaller independent brands like younger designers, people that are creating their first collections of accessories or footwear.
00:27:58
Speaker
or bags and they want to create a real change and a real impact. By having calls with different brands, I realized that fortunately, most of the times there's a real interest in adopting these materials and they ask a lot of questions. So it's not only about the hype or saying like, yeah, it's a sustainable
00:28:18
Speaker
So we'll use it. They really want to make sure that what we claim is true and they ask for the appropriate testing and LCA information and things like that. So I thought that was really good because brands want to do the right thing, basically.
00:28:34
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. And I guess the cry is really coming from the consumer at the end, isn't it? Who wants to understand where these products are made, how is how it's made. You want all of that information now. And I think it's exciting to see brands having to sit up and take this seriously. That actually brings us nicely to the next question, which was about pricing. Is it affordable? Is it attractive enough? Yeah, it's definitely attractive. And as I was saying earlier, the fact that you have so many customization options
00:29:05
Speaker
means that you can then come up with different qualities, which is really useful because you want to work with luxury brands, but you also want your material to be available for bigger audiences. So it's all about the type of ingredients, raw ingredients you use, some are more expensive than others, same with the textile backing, for example, you can have, yeah.
00:29:27
Speaker
different qualities, so it's all about having a really good material. And within that, having the different qualities, depending if you're making a luxury watch or if you're making a more mainstream bag, but giving the option to both types of consumers to benefit from these materials. Yeah, fantastic. What role do you see biotech styles playing in the future of fashion and accessories, and how might they change the way we think about clothing itself?
00:29:56
Speaker
I think it's going to be very interesting and very key role in terms of sustainability. I remember when I first started studying fashion in 2010, roughly, the main initiatives around sustainability were in terms of recycling clothing or using scraps from your pattern making process to produce accessories and all those initiatives while very interesting and good at that time.
00:30:25
Speaker
I feel we are kind of naive or maybe having less impact. So the fact that we can nowadays talk about producing materials that can be fully mega-degradable and that you can maybe produce a material for the specific quantities you need, even maybe in the future, you can produce a specific shape that you need for a pattern so you don't have any waste at all. I feel that's kind of another big change for the industry.
00:30:53
Speaker
And with all these new leather alternatives, the more companies that submerge in the area and the more conferences and the more we improve the communication of these initiatives, then consumers will be also be more aware. So yeah, I feel like a few years ago, maybe some consumers thought that PU or PVC was kind of a sustainable alternative to natural leather. And I feel like now people are more conscious that those materials contain plastic.
00:31:21
Speaker
It doesn't make them bad materials, but I feel like people now have more information on what's behind each material and they can better select each one depending on their preferences and the same with brands. They have a more clear idea on which materials to use for different products depending on what they
Personal Inspirations and Thesis Work
00:31:40
Speaker
need. So I feel like it's looking really promising for the fashion industry. Exciting. We've talked in depth about leather alternatives and biofilica.
00:31:50
Speaker
I'd love to now get to know you a bit more, Daniela, and your personal journey and what inspires you. Firstly, I was curious to find out if you had any role models or people who really inspired you and encouraged you to go down the road that you have. Yes, I can think right now of a really good professor I have when I was doing my undergraduate called Patricia, Patricia Deloria, and she was really
00:32:20
Speaker
I guess in my journey in terms of fashion and textiles, she was a really motivating person and her classes were so interesting and the message was always to keep learning and looking what's out there. So at that time, yeah, I was doing my degree in Argentina and for us certain things that we would look at from US or
00:32:49
Speaker
Europe seem distant or impossible and she would always keep motivating students and trying us to find ways to replicate the same things and finding innovative ways in terms of if we don't have certain technologies or certain tools, how can we still produce a really good quality design and product
00:33:12
Speaker
finding alternative ways, I would say. And yeah, she was really supportive. I then started working as a professor in the program. She coordinated in the university. And when I decided to move to the US to do my degrees, she was really supportive. And now we still keep in touch. And I write for the publication. She coordinates in Argentina. So yeah, I feel like that, yeah, that was a really good relationship.
00:33:41
Speaker
Oh, lovely. For me, fabric textiles is really powerful. It's much more than just the functionality of it. It speaks to our, I think our soul, not just our senses. Is there a piece of textile or clothing that holds very special personal memories or meaning for you? And could you share about that with us?
00:34:04
Speaker
I can think of examples because I've been working with textiles. I started learning how to sew when I was 15 and all the way since then I've been using textiles in different ways. I would say one type of material that I kind of kept close to or that is of particular significance for me would be
00:34:30
Speaker
the textiles I produced for my master's thesis. So that was the first, I would say, material that I created from a year before that I had been using textiles that were supplied by different companies into making garments. But that was the first one that I, in a way, created, of course, with the use of machines. And it was
00:34:57
Speaker
a really interesting journey because as part of that research, I work with different industry collaborators that provided antimicrobial yards or treatments. And then I work internally at NC State with the laboratory where you can do different surface finishes on the textile. So I feel like the finished material, if you look at it, it's a white piece of fabric that seems, yeah, it's emulated the construction of a bed sheet.
00:35:26
Speaker
If somebody else were to look at it, maybe they wouldn't see anything special about it. But for me, it kind of reminds me the whole journey and in a way, all the different team members and different key people that made that possible.
Importance of Academia-Industry Collaboration
00:35:41
Speaker
And all of that happened during COVID that made it more special.
00:35:47
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Even more special. I know I asked you a lot of questions. Is there a question you wish I had asked you and I didn't? Is there anything you want to share? Yeah. Maybe I would like to touch on kind of the current state of, or the importance I would say of academia and industry collaborations. So I think in this, in all these examples we've been discussing,
00:36:13
Speaker
about new materials and leather alternatives and textiles and all these different things. I feel like it's really important that the industry and the academia can work together. Oftentimes in industry, there are usually really fast-paced environments and especially for these new companies or new startups. Oftentimes you don't have very sophisticated equipment to
00:36:40
Speaker
characterize materials, for example, which makes sense as a startup, you cannot go and start
00:36:47
Speaker
spending millions in fancy equipment. At the same time, academia usually has all those resources, but sometimes the more commercial aspect of running a business is not that much studied or is not that such a priority. So I feel like both worlds have a lot to benefit from each other and it's really important for
00:37:16
Speaker
Yeah, to engage in grant projects and have placement students and all these different things that could close a little bit the gap between those two worlds. And also within that you can then engage with different schools, especially for these new materials. You need disciplines from design, you need engineering, you need material science, you need chemistry. So engaging with different universities can make that possible. I think that's really important.
00:37:47
Speaker
Absolutely. I think that's a brilliant point that you brought up. You sort of just briefly mentioned that you started making garments when you were 15. How did you get started and what was the first thing that you made? When I was in elementary school and high school, I would always like taking classes and courses of artistic things, so I learned how to
00:38:10
Speaker
draw paint, I would enjoy doing sculpture. And I was in high school at that time. And one of my friends had just started a pattern making course at an institute called FLEO in Buenos Aires. It was an Italian pattern making system that this Italian couple brought to the country. And she had just started and I got curious. I always enjoy doing things with my hands. So I was like, okay, I'm
00:38:40
Speaker
I want to do that with you, I'll join. And it's funny that after three months she quit the course because she found it boring and I kept going. And as part of that, the first thing I did was skirt.
00:38:55
Speaker
that I still keep.
Contact Information and Reflections
00:38:57
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, that is very special. Yeah, that would be one. Thank you so much for sharing that, Daniela. And as we come to the end of this conversation, I wondered if you could just leave the details of Biofilica, your website, email, so that those listening in, if they're curious to find out more or even want to saw some of the beautiful leather alternatives that you have, how they can get in touch with you.
00:39:24
Speaker
Yeah, so we have a website, biofilica.co.uk, that has the main information about the company and the contact form that people can use to get in touch with us.
00:39:35
Speaker
And also we are present in different material libraries. So oftentimes customers can look at the material through that. And we are really active in social media. So if we are about to participate in any upcoming events, then we would announce that as well so that people can look at it.
00:39:57
Speaker
Excellent. Daniella, it's been an absolute pleasure. I love just your curiosity and your determination. And, you know, even when you were 15, something, a pattern making course that really was boring and discouraged somebody else, you stuck with it, you wanted to figure it out and you enjoyed it. And I really, I feel like you're someone who really enjoys a challenge of, of finding a solution and being very focused and determined to, you
00:40:25
Speaker
to get it once you set your mind on it. And I think that's definitely a quality that a researcher and innovator needs. And I can see you go on to do incredible work because of these core skills and drive that you have.
00:40:40
Speaker
Thank you for sharing and teaching us about bio textiles as well as leather alternatives.
Episode Conclusion
00:40:46
Speaker
I'm hoping that people who are listening in will be inspired by this to realize that there are alternatives and there's a new way of thinking about materials when we start thinking about fashion and accessories or textiles in general. Thank you so much for inviting me. I had a really great time and yeah, I really enjoyed talking with you about all these different
00:41:07
Speaker
I'm sorry. Thank you, Daniella. It's been my pleasure. I've really enjoyed that conversation with Daniella and I absolutely love that we can now have leather that is completely made out of green waste and is also plastic free. Wouldn't you agree with me that this really is no ordinary leather? I hope you enjoyed hearing about Daniella's journey and learning more about leather alternatives that are making its way into our everyday lives.
00:41:33
Speaker
Definitely keep an eye on this space, it's going to be really interesting to see how the leather industry evolves, where alternatives such as Trichine Biofilica is emerging and some very good alternative solutions. How do you feel about this? Will you make the shift from natural leather to plastic free leather alternatives like these?
00:41:51
Speaker
Do you currently own any alternative leather products or accessories? When you use it, does it really live up to the expectations we have of leather products? I would love to hear your thoughts so please feel free to leave comments on our social media channel or email me. My details are in the show notes and you can also find contact details with Daniella Rondinone here as well so do get in touch with her if you'd like more information.
00:42:15
Speaker
This brings us to the end of this episode and I look forward to bringing you more incredible innovations from the world of textiles. Until next time, this is your host, Millie Taraken.