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With the beginning of the new year we've also added an entirely new category and brand new designer label to the online shop - the delicate real flower jewellery from Sekundär. This blog post will introduce the person behind this beautiful and sustainable jewellery label: Wen-Ting Chen from Taiwan. Sekundär was founded in 2018 in Berlin, Germany. The founder, Wen-Ting Chen, is originally from Taipei in Taiwan, which naturally also has a very strong influence on her work. Her previous work focused on paying respect to products, nature, and was also very much inspired by cultural differences. After studying a BA Fashion Design course in Taiwan and following up...

While soy fibre is still a relatively unknown choice for textile production, the first investigations into this fibre already took place in Japan during the 1940s and in the US in 1945. But even though the production was a success, the fibre was never commercially produced. The reasons for that included the rise of petroleum, which - due to its low processing cost - became one of the main raw materials used for synthetic textile production. But with the growing amount of environmental concerns and the demand for more sustainability, the interest in alternative fibre production, such as soy fibre, has also started to increase....

Banana fibre counts as a bast fibre and has relatively good mechanical properties. However, the use of banana fibre for textiles has not yet been researched widely, and the literature on its use for the fashion industry is somewhat limited. Bananas count as one of the most important global food crop and are currently cultivated in around 129 different countries, with India contributing approximately 15% of the total fruit production worldwide. Banana fibre is produced from the 'pseudo stem' of the banana plant, which would usually be burnt or left to rot (apart from a small amount that is fed to...

One of the main goals of this blog is to introduce the designers and brands that are behind the products offered on MAVOLU. We'll start off with Marina Kleist, a 24 year old accessories designer who is originally from France and has recently started her own brand 'Marina Kleist'.     How did you get into bags and sustainability? I have always seen my grandmothers sewing or knitting and subconsciously, I think it influenced my career. I did my studies in sewing, and began with furniture / decoration and clothing. After my studies, I did jobs that had nothing to do with sewing or fashion. It was...

Silk is a protein fibre produced by silkworms, and counts as one of the oldest textile fibres in the world. It is mostly known for its luxurious drape and smooth, soft texture. Generally speaking, peace silk is considered a more sustainable option compared to conventional silk in terms of animal welfare, social standards and the environment. But what exactly are the issues of conventional silk production? Similar to other industries, there have been many attempts to optimise the silk industry in order to gain more fibre and therefore achieve higher profits. And similar to other industries, silk manufacturing has mostly been taken out of its...