Seaweed buttons make waves
Alt-plastic startup Uluu has secured its first fashion customer: luxury sleepwear brand Papinelle.
Seaweed startup Uluu has clinched a deal with Australian sleepwear brand Papinelle to supply buttons made from seaweed.
The limited-edition Papinelle x Uluu collection is yet another small step forward for the fashion industry, which accounts for around 10% of global carbon emissions and is under increasing pressure to change.
While most of the attention focuses on sustainable textiles, the industry’s reliance on plastic accessories like buttons, trims, hangers and packaging remains largely unchecked, according to Uluu.
Sustainably-farmed seaweed is at the heart of its technology, Uluu says, and its buttons are made using a fermentation process (see tech box).
“It’s about offering our customers something they weren’t expecting – a story behind every detail.”
The resulting material performs like conventional plastic, but unlike plastic, it is biodegradable and doesn’t shed microplastics, according to Uluu.
“These buttons may be small, but they represent a major leap in how fashion can rethink materials,” Uluu co-founder and co-CEO Dr Julia Reisser said.
Uluu’s technology was developed in Perth and has already been used in small-scale products such as a surf wax comb in collaboration with Quiksilver, with the two brands also working together on seaweed-based apparel.
The Papinelle collaboration provides a platform to demonstrate the versatility of its technologies before scaling to larger production, Uluu said.
Uluu co-founder and co-CEO Michael Kingsbury described the launch as an “exciting step toward our vision of seaweed-based textiles that can replace polyester”.
“Buttons are just the beginning – our materials can replace plastic across rigid products as well as films, foams and fabrics,” he said.
Sleeping easy
Papinelle, a 22-year old company known for its natural fabrics and relaxed designs, described the move as an evolution of a "commitment to natural materials and conscious craftsmanship".
“We’re delighted to extend this commitment to premium-quality, natural materials with the introduction of ‘made with Uluu’ buttons," Papinelle co-creative director Nicole Kelly said.
A chance meeting at a sustainable fashion conference sparked the alliance, according to Uluu.
“It’s about offering our customers something they weren’t expecting – a story behind every detail,” Papinelle founder and co-creative director Renae James said.
Uluu’s technology process begins with sustainably farmed seaweed. According to Uluu, the seaweed sugars are fermented with microbes in a technique similar to brewing beer. This fermentation process produces a polymer known as polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), which behaves like traditional plastic in strength and water resistance. Once dried into a powder form, the PHA can be moulded into various products, in this case, buttons. Unlike petroleum-based plastics, the material is fully biodegradable, sheds no microplastics, and can break down safely in natural environments, according to Uluu.
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Amanda Bryan
Amanda Bryan
