Handbags grown from algae and fashion school scraps

Every project in fashion school left Nadia Boone with scraps, samples, materials, all with nowhere to go once the semester ended. "I remember looking at piles of fabric and wondering how an industry built around creativity could also produce so much waste," she says. Her degree is in fashion design, and her background is not in biotechnology, chemistry or environmental science. "I'm simply a fashion designer who became increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of textile waste I saw being created around me."

She started researching biomaterials and algae-based alternatives, teaching herself concepts outside her formal education. There were many failures. Countless hours of trial and error, she says. "It started as a little project, and then it became something more."

“There is so much value trapped in what we throw away, and our goal at BioSpoke is to turn that discarded textile waste into brand-new possibilities”

Nadia Boone

That project is BioSpoke, an environmental fashion venture focused on transforming textile waste into new materials using algae. She has made four handbag prototypes. Each is built from the bio material, made from algae and textile waste, and she says a lot of people have shown interest in them.

She is constantly inspired, she says, by Astro Teller's insight that "today's landfills are tomorrow's oil wells".

"What transformed this project from an idea into a business was community," she says. Local organizations invited her to teach workshops, and students showed up, along with artists, entrepreneurs, community members, all wanting to learn about sustainable fashion and biomaterials. She has travelled internationally to youth climate conferences and taken part in entrepreneurship programs. "I didn't begin with a laboratory, a research team, or a technical background," she says. "I began with curiosity, persistence, and a desire to reduce waste in an industry I love."

BioSpoke is now actively looking for international partners to collaborate with on textile waste streams. She is seeking organizations in sports and athletics; hospitality and hotel chains; universities, specifically fashion, theater or costume departments; and healthcare and hospital networks. Anyone in those industries who wants to partner can be put in touch with her.