Eco-chic: going bananas on the runway

DW (English)

German-Ivorian designer Paul Kadjo uses banana-plant fibers as material for his fashion creations. The result: sustainable and environmentally friendly outfits.

Transcript

00:00Fashion? Made out of banana. This is what I do. I'm going to show you how this works.

00:09German Ivorian fashion designer Paul Kadjo wants greater recognition for West African

00:14culture. But why banana fibers of all things? We'll take a behind-the-scenes look with the

00:21designer later. But first, let's meet him.

00:27Hey, I'm Paul Kadjo and welcome to my place. So follow me please. This is actually where

00:32the magic happens. Right now I'm working on the next collection. I've got a good sewing

00:37machine here. I've got the wonderful rack where you can see a lot of things, little

00:43projects and outfits we need to do. Paul works from his apartment studio in Hamburg, Germany.

00:49He tells us why sustainability and fabrics with banana fibers are so very important to

00:55Many designers have different ways to approach how they get to their final results. I like

01:00it to do with draping first because then I can immediately feel the silhouette, tell

01:06the materials and so on. My main goal is to figure out how the future of Africa is going

01:13to look like and being a very, let's say, sustainable, mindful people who is trying

01:21to give direction because the future is very bright there. You have a lot of youth, you

01:26have a lot of energy, also a lot of knowledge about traditional and also innovative things.

01:34Paul started his first label as a teenager. Neither his mother from Germany nor his Ivorian

01:40father saw it coming when they lived in the Ivory Coast. So how did he discover fashion

01:46back in Germany? Yeah, I saw the sewing machine of my mom. Actually, I still got it here.

01:57There it is, my first girlfriend. And then I just started sewing what I saw in my closet.

02:05So I took a hoodie, a T-shirt and just tried to copy it first.

02:09After school, Paul moved to Hamburg to study fashion design. Here he drew attention with

02:14his collections and Paul Coggio brand. His pieces are often in contrasting black and

02:21white, a play on Paul's European and West African roots. And when it comes to production,

02:26he is fully committed to sustainability. That's just one of the reasons the up-and-coming

02:32designer received recognition at 2021's Berlin Fashion Week.

02:38But what's so special about Banana Fiber?

02:42So what you can see here is a dress, fully made out of banana silk. And it's all hand-knitted

02:49here in Hamburg. And what you can see is a great melange of the color, even though it's

02:54all black. You have different shades of black, even though a little bit more to the grey

02:59side. But this is what I like, being very unique, really about also what you can see,

03:04the texture is very different, very hairy, but at the same time very interesting.

03:09But what makes a banana dress sustainable? Each stem can only bear fruit once and rots

03:16away after the harvest anyway. So reusing the fibers from the stem is like an added

03:21bonus.

03:24So this is the stem after it has been drawn, really dry. And now we use this material to

03:31then do the cellulose fiber process.

03:35The fiber is then used to spin yarn like this.

03:39The very potential of banana silk itself is very huge. So as you can tell, it looks a

03:46little bit like wool, but it is not at all. It's very nice to your skin. It is good for

03:54allergic people. It is biodegradable. It has the strength of hemp. So in the end, it combines

04:01all positive things from cotton, from silk, from synthetic fiber and even from wool within

04:07one fiber.

04:10Through patterns and symbols, Paul incorporates influences from various West African cultures

04:15into his designs. His dream is to make a difference on the African continent with fashion.

04:24The biggest outcome for me is imagine you have a Sarah, but made in Africa and fully

04:30sustainable using the banana fiber. With having very ready-to-wear collections made every

04:37single month as, let's say, super fast fashion or fast fashion does it, but on a really sustainable

04:44and social way.

04:46It's a big dream, but as far as making dreams come true, Paul has a good track record.

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