Rome-based Vérabuccia has developed a patented process for transforming fruit waste into materials for fashion accessories.

The young Italian company received the 2022 Techtextil Performance Fashion Innovation Award at the exhibition held in Frankfurt from June 21-24 for its first material, Ananasse, which employs pineapple rinds as the raw material.

Vérabuccia co-founders Fabrizio Moiani and Francesca Nori stress that unlike other plant leathers – which tend to imitate real animal leather – Ananasse retains the original appearance of a pineapple skin to emphasise the origins of the raw material.

“We aim to prove that with originality, innovative and appealing fashion can be created from surprising materials,” said Moiani. “Pineapple peel is by-product that is constantly produced in the agro-food industry, especially in producing countries, such as South America, but also in the countries that deal with the transformation of the fruit into products of different ranges, generating cost problems for disposal every year, as well as an environmental impact. Through an industrial process we can recover them to give them a new added value for applications in the fashion and design sector.”

www.verabuccia.it