Herman Lategan takes a look at a somewhat unusual fashion design that also has an ecological advantage
When most people think of fish, they think of food, or fishing or perhaps feng shui. In the United Kingdom it is traditionally served deep-fried with chips, in Japan it’s served raw and in Jewish households they poach gefilte fish.
But fish may have other uses as well. Scientific research has shown that a gigantic predator from Lake Victoria, the Nile perch (which is usually exported for the posh haute cuisine tables of Europe), has such a tough skin that it can be tanned into leather for an all-purpose wardrobe.
Hold on to your hats as fish-skin jackets, dresses, shoes, belts and other accoutrements blow the fickle fashion capitals out of the water with their stylish appeal.
Two young cutting-edge couturiers who are part of a small handful of people brave enough to experiment with fish skin are design duo Thane Slater and Alexander Dickmann. Their partnership, called Thane Alexander Couture, rotates its business between Cape Town and Munich, Germany.
They agree that so far their German clients have taken to wearing fish-skin garments … er, like a fish to water, more so than their South African clients.
Thane Slater is a graduate student of fine arts who studied textile and fashion and gained design experience while working for well-known designer labels in South Africa. Alexander Dickmann, while studying business economics in Munich, built up fashion contacts in Europe.
The two fashion anarchists decided a while back that they had other fish to fry when it came to using the same predictable materials for their designs.
“We got bored with the same fabrics and the way they feel. Why use ordinary leather when you could use this fine fish product?” Slater asks.
“It’s tough and durable, yet it feels incredibly sensual on the skin. It cleans easily [it should, it’s been in the water for so long, he adds humorously] and before somebody cries stinking fish, it doesn’t smell as many people might think.”
These two obviously have a wacky sense of humour, something that is often lacking in the chichi world of glamour and fashion. When it comes to talking about their designs though, they become more serious.
“Our fish-skin designs are no longer uniform, but balanced on the body with distinct lines. I believe in a new era for women: individual, strong and powerful. Rather retro in a way and also quite futuristic,” says Slater.
Hmm … who would have thought that the future would bring designers who are hooked on fish skin? Next there might be ramp models smelling fishy and meowing on the catwalk.
The Nile perch (Lates niloticus) appeared in Lake Victoria, the second largest freshwater lake in the world, in the late 1950s. They may have been introduced deliberately and since their appearance, most fish species in the lake have fallen prey to the giant predator.
Having no natural predators in the lake and a plethora of food, the perch flourished, often reaching up to 250kg (three times the size of a human being), forcing it to eat constantly to sustain itself.
Such gross eating habits are no longer sustainable and with little available food resources remaining, the Nile perch has taken to cannibalism with the larger fish feasting on the smaller ones.
Owing to its presence, the natural balance of the lake’s ecosystem has been disrupted. According to trade and environment case studies, it has altered and in some cases broken the food chain by its indiscriminate eating habits.
The subsequent decrease in the number of algae-eating fish allows algae to grow at an alarming rate, choking the lake.
The increasing amounts of algae, in turn, increase the dead plant material that sinks to the deeper portions of the lake, before decomposing. As a result, oxygen levels are dropping and life cannot exist in those areas of the lake.
Not only fish are dependant on the health of Lake Victoria. More than 30-million people in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania rely on it for nourishment. The fishing industry, in particular, is suffering.
With traditional food resources all but extinct, their nets continuously damaged by the sheer size of the Nile perch, many of the local fishermen have had to abandon their work.