Textiles from Trees to Trash

Over the past two decades the global fashion and textiles industry has seen a more forceful drive towards attempting to implement sustainable fashion systems. With the action toward climate change being ever more urgent, the need to engage with all aspects of sustainable textiles and clothing development is incredibly pressing.

In this respect techniques of cultivation and development of textiles in the Caribbean offer insight into environmentally congruent methods. Practices that were developed by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and passed down through community engagement, present possibilities for understanding how naturally growing vegetation might be used in the creation of textiles.

The Bahamas in particular has a unique history within the context of sustainable textile development. A history of plantation failure and agricultural difficulty caused the enslaved populations and labouring classes to be abandoned by plantation owners and largely left to their own devices. This led them to develop their abilities to make and create textiles and items of dress out of straw as well as other plant fibres and waste materials.

Strict racial codes and social edicts caused straw work to be viewed as an activity of the poor and lower classes even though the selling of these items enabled the descendants of enslaved Africans to be in a position to generate their own income and elevate their social aspirations. With innovation, augmentation of style and purpose and intergenerational cross-cultural engagement this practice can be brought into a 21st century context offering economic and social viability to those involved.

The focus of this paper will be how the use of natural biodegradable textiles developed from plant fibres should be a consideration in the move towards sustainable futures and offers an account of the work currently being done in this area. Throughout this discussion a contemporary analysis of the Bahamian traditional use of straw, coconut palm, sisal weaving, and other pieces of fauna and flora will demonstrate how they have impacted socio economic development and can continue to be used in the further creation of sustainable textiles and dress practices.

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