Alginate Materials for Circular Fashion: from Consumptive to Regenerative Systems

With growing attention towards environmental issues and impact of current production systems, research on new materials and processes has broadened significantly, with particular interest for the fashion field, one of the most consumptive industries on Earth. As renewable and circular resource then, algae and its derivatives as sodium alginate, started to be a focus of many design researches and projects. The research, aimed at fabricating and cataloguing a palette of sodium alginate material samples in order to showcase its potential for the textile field, providing a contribution to the growing community of researchers operating in the field of bio-materials. The collection was the result of the combination of both traditional and innovative manufacturing techniques, and explored the material from the technical-productive point of view, as well as from the aesthetic-perceptual one, with the aim of contributing to its diffusion fostering a shift towards regenerative circular production.