Out Of The Shell
Designer: Judith Gahigiro
Model: Rachel Gahigiro
Photographer: María Claudia Pérez
Make up: Rachel Gahigiro
Hairstylist: Rachel Gahigiro
Date: 24/06/2022
I present to you "Out of the Shell", my Final Degree Project.
It consists of the technical study and development of the application of an innovative material, coconut leather "Malai".
To understand better its functionality I apply it to a capsule collection for a specific brand called Brother Vellies.
My objectives in this project are to analyze the coconut leather and compare it with animal leather and detect its limitations in order to solve them through design.
For this project, about the analysis of the application of vegan leathers, I have made a list of the eight that I have researched, for which I have chosen one of them to analyze in depth and make prototypes.
The list is: apple, pineapple, mushroom, banana, grape, cork, cactus and coconut leather.
Finally I decided to analyze in depth the coconut leather because of many reasons:
- It's a new material in the textile industry. It has been used in accessories and footwear but not yet in garments.
- It comes from India so I have had to contact suppliers.
- It does not include plastics, so it's a more complex challenge, since it doesn't have the same resistance and flexibility as those that do include plastics.
- I wanted to study the limitations of the material in order to solve them through design.
- And I wanted to get into a field to explore, analyze and develop in order to focus the project on technical research.
To do so, I designed several garments in order to work differently on the limitations of each garment and to look for solutions: a bustier that needs to be more tailored, a jacket that would need flexibility and movement, and a skirt that would also need mobility and to mold the body.
Firstly, I made the garments in animal leather to practice their usual way of sewing it and then, I made the garments with coconut leather using the same procedure with the animal ones.