Meet the designer making luxury fashion from seafood waste AND mushrooms
We catch up with Uyen Tran, who reflects on her upbringing on the coast of Vietnam and time working in New York, foundations that inspired her to launch TômTex with the aim to design the future
At Parley, we’re always thinking about the future. What can the world look like? How can it be improved? How can we not just live in harmony with nature, but learn from it? We are aware that we cannot simply recycle our way out of the plastic crisis – we need to redesign the structures and systems that pollute our planet, along with the harmful materials that we’ve become addicted to. It’s why we’re calling for a Material Revolution – we have to change the way we make things in order to create the future. This new Parley series will meet the innovators and scientists who are trying to remodel our material world.
Growing up in Da Nang, a coastal city in Vietnam, Uyen Tran’s mother’s attitude towards clothing was: buy secondhand and if it breaks, it needs repairing. Compare this to the West, where on average we wear our clothes just seven times before discarding them, resulting in nearly 19 million tonnes of clothes ending up in landfills every year. It’s an unsustainable system. Tran moved to New York to study at the prestigious design school Parsons, before going to work at several different fashion houses, a period that was formative for her as she was confronted daily with processes that she knew were incredibly reckless. This close-up insight into the fashion industry’s waste problem and its impact on our environment inspired her to found TômTex, a company creating a leather alternative biomaterial using seafood waste and mushrooms.
“Due to climate change, in the past ten years the sea water in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam has risen so high that salt water invades the land, so you cannot farm other crops anymore,” says Tran. “Usually the farming is seasonal – rice, corn, bananas – then another season they're farming shrimp. The first option is no longer available, because of the weather. So the whole region, thousands of farms, have to convert and transform to do shrimp farming”. Up to eight million tonnes of shrimp shell waste is generated each year, mostly discarded back into the ocean or into landfills. However, it’s waste that has value if used correctly – crustacean shells contain chitosan, the second most abundant biopolymer on Earth. Tran’s experiments with chitosan resulted in her realizing that she could create a material that not only drew from waste products in her home country, but could also offer a plastic-free alternative to leather, one that biodegrades in years rather than centuries.
TômTex (tôm is Vietnamese for ‘shrimp’) was used in a recent Parley collaboration with Sky High Farm Universe and has been used in collections by major fashion houses. Tran is passionate about the idea of TômTex going global – producing in specific regions, using local waste material. We caught up with her to find out more.
Uyen Tran — CEO & Founder of TômTex
Q&A
I just want to start by talking about your upbringing, which feels quite influential on the work that you do. Growing up in Da Nang, when did you become aware of the pollution that the leather industry causes?
I was born and raised in Da Nang, Vietnam. I remember when I was a kid, my mom would usually take me and my sister to all the secondhand shops to get clothes. We didn't have the privilege to buy new clothes when I was a kid. I wore all of these (secondhand clothes) growing up, and I loved it. I still wear them right now, but I’m aware that these clothes are just discarded in other countries. When Western countries no longer use them, they transport them back to South Asia, and other parts of the world. When I came to America I worked in a lot of fashion houses in New York and saw this ‘take, make and discard’ attitude in the textile industry. I was really aware of the impact of the textile waste that eventually is going to end up in my hometown. That's why I’m passionate about natural and innovative materials in our industry.
How did you learn that you could make a new material from seafood shells?
I'm fascinated by the way nature uses its materials. As a textile designer I study cellulose a lot. Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on earth – we use cellulose to create a lot of viscose rayon (otherwise known as sabra silk) and other man-made fibers such as cotton, hemp and bamboo fiber. I really looked into what kind of other biopolymer we can use to produce a next-gen, sustainable material. And besides cellulose we have chitosan. Chitosan is the second most abundant biopolymer on earth, just behind cellulose, and it has so many nice characteristics. It's very soluble in water, it has antimicrobial characteristics that people use to treat the textile. However, the majority of chitosan use at this moment is for wastewater treatment and ingredients for food or medication. I experimented a little bit with chitosan and at first what we got was a piece of film, it looked plastic-y, but it had this finished feeling, like leather. So I'm really excited about how we can engineer this new biopolymer to create leather-like material.
Malpractice in the seafood industry is a big conversation for us at Parley. How do you ensure that the waste comes from a legitimate source? As industries go, it’s the wild west out there. How do you go about that? Is there a way to go about that?
Yeah, very good question. Just to take a little step back and talk about the material. You can get chitosan from the exoskeleton of insects, fungi, and seafood shell waste. So there is an abundant amount of ways out there that you can get chitosan. At this moment we are focusing on chitosan from shell seafood waste, and another source is from mushrooms. Our Series M material is from mushroom chitosan, it’s 100% plant based and bio-based. Series WS is from shell seafood waste. This one is 100% bio-based. We don't use any plastic toxic chemicals or nasty solvents to produce the material at all – it's composable and it's safe for you to use.
Regarding the shell seafood waste problem in Vietnam – the farm we source our material from is in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, in the south. Due to climate change, in the past ten years the sea water has risen so high that salt water invades the land, so you cannot farm other crops anymore. Usually the farming is seasonal – rice, corn, bananas – then another season they're farming shrimp. The first option is no longer available, because of the weather. So the whole region, thousands of farms, have to convert and transform to do shrimp farming, and the government in Vietnam is trying to move forward to more sustainable stream farming. It’s a really key project that people have been working on for the past ten years.
So, I have seen many improvements in the farms. I also have to flag that Vietnam is one of the top three countries exporting seafood around the world. A lot of cultures don’t consume the shells, so the shell is discarded before the meat and the good parts are exported to other countries. Shrimp shells contain a high amount of nitrogen and can contaminate the environment if we don't do anything with it. When we export our seafood to different parts of the world like London or New York, America, there are a lot of certifications that we have to match (such as not using antibiotics) that we have to match to be able to fulfill the requirement when we export.
“When I came to America I worked in a lot of fashion houses in New York and saw this ‘take, make and discard’ attitude in the textile industry.”
Uyen Tran — CEO & Founder of TômTex
You say "Waste is the new luxury" on your site. Could you explain that a little more? And do you envisage that we're going to eventually have a world where luxury fashion is entirely made from waste?
Yeah, I really believe that. If you look at the whole supply chain in fashion… how we get our raw material to produce our products is basically very, very narrow. A lot of cellulose that we use at this moment is actually from trees. So we chop the whole forest down to get this material, go back to the factory and produce cellulose, which leads to deforestation. If you look at the real picture, they leave the whole land without any trees, which is a response to over consumption as well. There's more and more trees chopped down every year to produce the textiles that we use right now. So I truly believe that in the future we have to diversify the source that we use.
There's so much waste out there that contains cellulose that we can use. I’m interested in agricultural waste in Vietnam. We have a lot of corn husk, a lot of rice husk that we can use, and that is the future I think people in the industry are talking about at this moment, to really diversify and look at other sources to get the materials that they need, with more values and feedback into the ecosystem.
Your ambition is to help to create a world that is circular, and regenerative. I do think that will happen, but how far away do you think that is?
Very good question. We have been doing this for the last three years, and from the idea until commercialization… it takes around seven years. It takes a long time. And I said it a lot – science is not magic and technology takes time. When we work with a designer or with brands, or even for the public as well, we're very transparent on the timeline of development. At this moment, we need another few more years to really ramp up the scale and produce something that everyone can touch, feel and use.
I always think this when I'm talking to people like yourself who are involved with biofabrication and biomaterials - does it feel exciting to be part of a small community who are trying to redesign our material world?
Yeah it is. It's also heartbreaking when we see someone is not doing well because we want everyone doing well so we can move the needle forward. There are so many things that are exciting, materials that will have some commercial scale in the next two years. For us, we are at the edge of finishing our R&D. The material is always evolving and improving, but we are now at the edge of producing commercial products with designers to sell to the public.
You've collaborated with Peter Do, Dauphinette, Maitrepierre – what are the challenges and also the advantages of working with fashion houses like this?
Now everyone has the same voice – they really support true innovation with regards to sustainable textiles. People are so tired of greenwashing. The first questions a designer asks me are: ‘Do you still use plastic? Do you use toxic chemicals?’ I appreciate it, because they do their due diligence, they know the material they want. We get into the values of the material right away, what we can do for the designer. When we talk with the designer, it's always like we said – our material is 100% biowaste and we keep it like that. The second thing is the price point. Some don't realize that some technology is very expensive. So when we develop something from the get go, we talk about the price point right away. Can we make this accessible and affordable for everyone? Otherwise, we're not going to do it. Because there's no path to scale, and there's no path to market adaptations. Our material is affordable and has a soft price for designers to adapt right now. So that is the second thing that I think is a challenge.
The third point is tied up with the performance, the hand feel of the material, or under the sewing machine can it sustain the form of the design? All of that has to come together to convince them to use the material. It's hard to make it affordable, make really good material, and we are a small team! Aligning all those things is more challenging than ever. But I think we have a very good plan when we engage, and when we work with a designer.
In a dream scenario, what is the product you'd most like to create using TômTex material?
At this moment we’re really focusing more on a faster adaptation market. We think fashion is our way of moving forward at the first stage. But leather is used in so many industries, so we talk to people in furniture design, in hospitality, in accessories, and electronic devices as well. Upcoming products can use our materials in their design and we think that in the next two to five years we will transition from fashion and emerge into other industries.
Your material's 100% naturally biodegradable. Obviously it depends on what it's exposed to, but how long do the textiles last? Someone I spoke to recently made a really good point that it's insane that clothes last forever when we don't.
Yeah. Can you believe that all the plastic that we ever invented is still here, just floating around? It's disgusting. The analysis that we talk about with people is wood. The wood table, the dining table that you use, can last with you for a long time. Years. Because you're taking care of it, you repaired it, and it's basically a natural material, it's just wood. But when you discard it into the environment, into a landfill, it's natural material. Bacteria and microbes recognize the ingredients and they can consume it. That is exactly the same thing with our material. My wallet here right now has lasted for three years now. I know that the moment that I lose it somewhere, it’s going to return to the soil, like other natural materials. We're still passing around a lot of samples for the wear and tear purpose. It's not going to dissolve into your wardrobe! I would say it can last with you for up to 50 years – it's a pretty long time. I would say, either it has to last forever or it has to biodegrade. Because in between is creating this waste crisis. The majority of T-shirts people use three to five times and then discard it right away. We have this overconsumption crisis that we have to tackle.
I liked what you said about how you grew up respecting clothes, and repairing them. What do you think countries like America and the UK could learn from Vietnam?
The problem that we are facing at this moment is the system of repairing in the West is more expensive. If you buy something here, it's cheaper for you to discard it than to bring it out to the shop and have it fixed. For example, I bought a blazer and some trousers for a hundred and something dollars. I took it to the shop as I wanted it tailored a bit to fit my form, and they charged me $100. It's very expensive! In Vietnam it’s the reverse. If you want to fix something or create and sell new clothes it's way more affordable and cheap than the new clothes. I think the future is to apply this more in America, in Europe or other parts of the world. To adapt the repair service there needs to be an incentive program or affordable pricing for people to do that more often. Many brands have an incentive program for people to take back the clothes, or they have a little tailor shop in each different store that they have. So people can come and say, "Can you fix this button for me?" "Can you fix this zipper for me?"
So I see that's coming, but I don't know how they fix the price because the labor cost here… it is what it is. It’s something I still need to do a lot of research on, I’m really curious about the way that brands adapt this. But there’s a huge, huge movement happening right now regarding repair culture.
“Can you believe that all the plastic that we ever invented is still here, just floating around? It's disgusting.”
Uyen Tran — CEO & Founder of TômTex
Where do you hope TômTex will be in ten years? Is that a big question?
We are really certain about our future. We have plans to have productions in each different region. We have customers and clients around the world and it makes no sense to shift the products across the oceans. So if we operate in Asia, we would love to have something in Asia to produce right there locally, using all the resources there, delivered to the Asian customer. The same applies for Europe and America as well. We want to really rely on the natural resources that each region can offer. That is my dream and something that we already plan within our next five to ten years. We hope to produce more products using the same technology as well. How can we utilize this technology to do different things, for example, like biofilm, bio yarn, different kinds of packaging as well. The dream is to have this cohort of new sustainable materials, because I believe that everyone deserves better materials, and they deserve something that is safe for them to use every day. So we will make this happen, and we hope that the textile industry will change in that direction with us.
Imagery courtesy of Amber Nguyen & TômTex
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