The Sunday Times - UK (2021-12-19)

The Sunday Times December 19, 2021 17

NEWS

Eating out

should be

pricier,

says Prue

Eating out in restaurants

should be more expensive

because chefs, waiters and

other hospitality staff need to

be paid more, according to

Dame Prue Leith, the Great

British Bake Off judge.

She told Desert Island

Discs, to be broadcast today

on BBC Radio 4: “We don’t

pay enough for raw food and

we don’t pay enough for

restaurant food. What I’m

hoping is that now, because

there has been so much

attention to it, we will start to

pay people better. But I’m

sorry to say that will mean

you pay more for your

dinner.”

Leith, 81, added: “This is

something that I have been

banging on about for all my

life. Caterers are so

undervalued... The long and

the short of it is we don’t pay

enough for food.”

Hotels, pubs and

restaurants are struggling to

recruit staff because the

pandemic and Brexit resulted

in many European workers

returning home.

Leith, who voted to leave

in the 2016 referendum, said

she was disappointed by the

fact that “we were not quick

enough to realise how

difficult it would be to get

staff ”. There are almost

200,000 vacancies in the

sector, according to

UKHospitality, a lobby group.

She became a judge on

Bake Off in 2017, when the

show moved from the BBC to

Channel 4. Leith said her

predecessor, Mary Berry,

gave her a word of advice on

how to deal with Paul

Hollywood, a fellow judge.

“He’s very articulate and if

you don’t jump in and get

your opinion in he will say it

all and there’ll be nothing left

for you to say,” Berry told her.

@iamliamkelly

Liam Kelly

Arts Correspondent

First there was cow leather, then plastic

leather: now we are wearing pineapple

leather.

Handbags and dresses made from fruit

also including mangos, apples and grapes

are being sold by designers and high

street brands including H&M and Self-

ridges.

In an effort to appeal to vegans and

environmentalists, manfacturers have

begun experimenting with leather alter-

natives made of leftovers from the wine

and fruit juice-making process. Leaves,

skins, stalks and seeds are being dried,

milled, chemically treated and rolled into

faux leather felt.

Fruit fibres have previously been dis-

missed as too soft, too expensive and

insufficiently durable or water-resistant

to be used in fashion. However, advances

in technology and a growing demand for

vegan fashion that does not use new plas-

tic has brought a change of heart.

H&M has launched a range of clothing

made partly from grape skin fibres, seeds

and stalks discarded during wine-mak-

ing. These are dried and combined with

Pineapple leather

puts you on the

zest-dressed list

water-based polyurethane

plastic and vegetable oils to

create rolls of “leather”. The

fabric, created by the Italian com-

pany Vegea, has been used to create

a collection for H&M that includes

£149.99 red knee boots and a black

patent mini dress at £79.99.

Cecilia McNeil, a specialist in sus-

tainable materials for H&M, said: “One

of the benefits of the material is that it

utilises resources that would otherwise

be considered waste by using leftovers

from wine production. This makes us less

dependent on virgin materials. The mat-

erial does contain some polyurethane

[plastic] and this is something we are

working to improve.”

Fibres from fruit leaves or skins are

typically mixed with up to 50 per cent

plastic polyurethane or at least coated in

it to make it more durable, rigid and

waterproof, so are only partially bio-

degradable. However, the London-based

manufacturer Piñatex uses as little as

5 per cent in its fabric made from leftover

pineapple leaves from the Philippines.

Selfridges stocks Marici handbags

made from Piñatex starting from £650.

They are typically 80 per cent pineapple

Clothing made from the wine and juice industry’s

leftovers offer a high street alternative for vegans

Louise Eccles

Consumer Affairs Editor

leaf fibre that is dried, mixed with poly-

lactic acid and rolled into felt.

Fruit skins are increasingly being used

in homeware too. Nuuwaï, based in Ger-

many, uses apple skin “leather” for its £

placemat sets. Apple cores, stalks and

pips left over from juicing are milled into

a fine powder and mixed with plastic to

create a roll of fabric.

Mirum, an American brand, has just

launched a 100 per cent plant-based

material that is being used in handbags

and rucksacks. Its exact composition is a

secret but the ingredients include char-

coal, soya beans, rubber, cork and coco-

nut husks.

Jessica Kruger, 33, sells tote bags, back-

packs and wallets made from apple, pine-

apple, corn or cactus through her online

boutique Luxtra London. She has also

created a prototype bag from Mirum

textiles, although the fabric costs about

five times more than other plant-based

leathers.

She said: “It does look fantastic;

smooth, nice lustre and a slightly earthy

smell. At the moment the cost of fabrics

with more fruit flesh and less plastic are

prohibitively expensive but economies of

scale will help make that come down.

“However, there also needs to be more

consumer awareness, perhaps, that

things might need to be a little bit more

expensive in order to ensure an ethical

supply chain.”

Kruger said: “Cow leather is one of the

most durable natural materials out there

and other materials cannot quite com-

pete. However, some of the quality is in

the manufacturing. I was looking at a

Piñatex cardholder my colleague has in

silver and it is 800 days old and is in good

nick, the stitching is perfectly intact.”

Hugo Boss has previously sold men’s

sneakers made from Piñatex, and this

year Stella McCartney introduced corsets

and trousers made from mushrooms.

Scaling up some fruit fabrics is a chal-

lenge. A pineapple takes at least 18

months to grow and each plant provides

only one fruit.

The rise of alternatives to plastic has

been welcomed by environmentalists

but some want retailers to offer

more sustainable fabrics for their

main ranges rather than focus-

ing on luxury collections.

Philippa Grogan, a sustain-

ability consultant at Eco-

Age, said: “I think

using a fruit

industry by-

product as an

alternative to rear-

ing so many animals

for leather has strong

environmental and socioeconomic bene-

fits. But it seems a shame to then coat it

with polyurethane and contribute to the

plastic problem.”

@Louise_Eccles

1

Leaves left over

from the

pineapple harvest

in the Philippines

are collected

in bundles

2

The long fibres

in the leaves are

extracted using

semi-automatic

machines

34

The fibres are

washed and then

dried naturally by

the sun or in drying

ovens during the

rainy season

Dry, fluffy pineapple

leaf fibre is mixed

with polylactic acid

made from corn

starch and is turned

into felt

5

The rolls of felt are

sent to Spain or Italy

so a plastic coating

can be applied, ready

to be used for clothes

and homeware

Source: Pinatex

CUT FROM A DIFFERENT CLOTH

H&M’s Vegea

vegan leather

boots are made

of grape skins,

stalks and seeds,

while Marici

handbags, above

left, are 80 per

cent pineapple

leaf fibre

H&M