Fishy fashion
What do bikinis and salmon have in common? Apart from the fact that the performance of the former can be seriously impeded by over-consumption of the latter (particularly when cream and pasta enter the mix) there is a far more profitable overlap between sexy swimming gear and the untimely demise of a certain species of fish, at least according to Chilean fashion designer Claudia Escobar.
I'm told Escobar has made a name for herself by bringing out a line of salmon skin bikinis, which - priced around $200 and using an uber-cheap, naturally occurring raw material – promise a sizeable "ker-CHING" factor, particularly in fickle Fashionland, where novelty is at a premium.
Apparently tonnes of salmon skin are discarded worldwide every year, allowing Escobar's Lycra-trimmed, ultra-mini salmon-skinny tight bikini (sing-along anyone?) which she describes as "durable and elastic", to keep overheads low, while successfully swimming into the market with a 'luxury' positioning.
Meanwhile for those of us understandably squeamish about the concept of bikinis (never mind the fish factor), a pair of salmon skin trousers might be the go. I must say I find all this a little suspicious. Doesn't anything fish-related…well… pong a tad after a while?
Although fish oil, they say, is good for the brain, so perhaps the bikinis – if chewed on in the privacy of owners' homes – might help stave off the onset of Alzheimer's for a few years. And as for the durability claim, well, really… The last time I came across salmon skin was on the side of my dinner plate, nestled among other undesirable fish-related remains, and believe me, it was about as elastic as a wet paper bag.
Clearly Escobar does not bake her salmon-skinny garments in a hot oven after marinading them in garlic and lemon, but I dread to think what would happen to them if exposed accidentally to a hot wash or an excess of sunlight. For the ethicists among us fishy fashion also presents a conundrum – it's disposable (bad) but biodegradable (good).
Another moral upside however is that Escobar has made clear her aim of using fashion as a tool, not only to recycle nature's leftovers, but to help women overcome poverty by taking traditional, local materials and transforming them into high end items. And it seems her idea is supported by tradition.
Warriors in old Japan and Russia - while eschewing bikinis - apparently used fish skin to bind their sword handles. Fashions come and go, so maybe the fish fad will have taken a nose dive before the animal rights campaigners get their hands on it, although my advice to anyone who purchases salmon based garments would be: get a cat.
That way you can feed the incriminating evidence to it should PETA come knocking. Escobar – who now lives in Scotland (otherwise known as Salmon Heaven) now plans to launch another line based on a safer material all round; discarded sheep's wool. Knitting… now there's a fad that might just catch on.
By Kat Walker