Katrín Káradóttir is the Programme Director in Fashion Design at the Department of Design and Architecture at the Iceland University of the Arts. Katrín studied tailoring in Reykjavik and fashion design in Paris.
Mission & Vision
1 Tap into humanity’s existing traditional knowledge in fish skin processing, its potential as a raw material for fashion, and to channel this knowledge for deeper scientific understandings using state-of-the-art technology.
2 Research will be held in compliance with the following fundamental principles: characterizing the required threshold biological properties of fish skin to be used as a raw material in the fashion industry considering various types of fish indigenous to European waters.
3 Developing modern techniques and technologies for tanning a wider variety of fish skins, implementing circular economy principles, and reducing or possibly eliminating use of Chromium (III) salts on industrial production scale
4 Implementing a material-based design methodology for creating new & innovative crafting and processing procedures for fish leather, as well as develop appropriate and accurate products for the fashion industry, which leverage fish leather characteristics in its best.
5 Developing modern techniques and technologies for printing on fish leather, using non-toxic dyes, and potentially scaling up to an industrial process.
6 Developing adhesion techniques and technologies for producing continuous large sheets from multiple fish skin sources, using a non-toxic adhesive.
7 Developing 3D simulation tools for drape characterization of large fish leather sheets, as well as pattern making in fish skin.
8 Producing a pan-European design strategy for introducing fish-skin based fashion products into consumer markets.
9 Producing a pan-European circular economy strategy outline for combining the aquaculture and fashion industry by using both the fish flesh and skin as viable, economically useful products. With these aims in mind, our project will revolutionize how we use and think about fish skin as a useful raw material.
Watch video by Gabriel Berretta and Giovanni Perotto from IIT