PINEAPPLE FIBER FABRIC
PINEAPPLE FIBER FABRIC
Pineapple Fiber Fabric is surely the ugly duckling of the textile world. Of the many varieties of Pineapple that exist on this planet, there is one very special variety with contemptuous bland fruit and thick spiny leaves that produces one of the most delicately diaphanous textiles known. And its being is quite the tale too.
LETS BRING OUR ATTENTION to the Spanish invasion of the Northern Philippines in the 16th Century. The Spanish thought themselves on God’s mission and with moral duty to civilize the native population by organizing society through religion and productive labor- as European Catholics were wont to do at the time, and maybe even others, now. One of the first ‘improvements’ the Spanish insisted upon was for the indigenous inhabitants to be fully clothed from head to toe. This, despite the local wisdom to go bare in the tropical climate for the sake of comfort and with no concept of bodily shame. To the colonial mind however, clothing was a sign of cultivation and nudity a sign of savagery. The indigenous Filipino population followed the clothing directive, appeasing those that held sufficient armaments. They were not to be outdone however. Having already crafted a cloth from the leaf fibers of the Banana tree, the locals discovered that the sheath leaves of newly Spaniard planted Pineapple could be woven into an almost transparent, sheer, cool, and graceful fabric. The pineapple fabric gave an outward appearance of being ‘clothed properly’, and, met the needs of a tropical climate. A bit of myth perhaps, though certainly swell marketing copy.
By the 19th century this fabric woven of pineapple leaf fibers became one of the most sought after commodities in European fashion circles, particularly Paris. In 1850 Filipino dignitaries presented a petticoat and undergarments crafted of the Pineapple Fiber Fabric to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. No myth, look it up. Pineapple Fiber Fabric, for the body and home in any century.
color: NATURAL
size: 1.0 yd x 30.0” in [91.44 x 76 cm]
content: 37% Organic Pineapple Plant Fiber, 63% Silk
use: curtain/drapery sheer, wall panels, pillows, apparel
weight: .81 oz/yd [25.3 g/m]; [32.9 grms/mtr2]
sample: 8" x 9” in [20 x 23 cm]