rewoven silk cocoon waste emerges as leather alternative for clothing, accessories and more

Hiroto Ikebe’s leather alternative from silk cocoon waste

A recent leather alternative arrives in the form of rewoven silk cocoon waste. It’s a research product by Hiroto Ikebe, and the Japanese designer has showcased his findings through the exhibition COCOON ANATOMY during DESIGNART Tokyo 2024. Here, he puts clothing on display to demonstrate that silk materials that are typically discarded or not used for mass production can still be repurposed into fabrics and materials with multiple uses.

photos by Yasunari Kikuma ©︎ Fashion Frontier Program, courtesy of Hiroto Ikebe

Fibers emerge from carding raw silk, kibiso, and degara cocoons

In the exhibition COCOON ANATOMY, the leather alternatives come from raw silk, the material that hasn’t been fully processed or refined; kibiso, the outer layer of silk thread, which is often rough; and degara cocoons, the ones that may not be ideal for traditional silk production but still have fibers that can be used in production. Hiroto Ikebe subjects them to carding, or the process of separating and mixing the fibers from each material together.

The designer reweaves them all into nature-inspired cuts and patches the filaments together with other materials to produce a dress and a headpiece. He says that they have properties that are similar to leather in terms of texture, durability, and versatility. The silk cocoon waste then may be a viable alternative to leather, plus it can help reduce the discarding of the shells in landfills. He hopes that the exhibition can bring light to new techniques and approaches to sericulture, or the production of raw silk and the act of raising silkworms.

Hiroto Ikebe’s leather alternative comes from silk cocoon waste

Modernizing sericulture with silk waste as leather alternative

In the exhibition, there are two main objects that can showcase the potential of reweaving silk cocoon waste as a leather alternative. The first one is the dress with a headpiece, as mentioned before. The second is more of displaying the intermingled fibers from raw silk, kibiso, and degara cocoons, the ‘raw’ product of the carding process.

Here, viewers are able to see the sinous materiality of the fibers, which can then be mixed with other components to create fabrics and pieces of cloth for accessories and other applications. Hiroto Ikebe hopes that by modernizing sericulture, a practice that’s in decline in Japan according to the designer, the silk cocoon waste gets a second life and is no longer just discarded.

detailed view of the rewoven silk cocoon waste as a leather alternative