Films: Shiringa - A Regenerative Fashion Solution
Today, as we celebrate International Women's Day, we honour the women of the Awajún community, whose craftsmanship, leadership, and dedication to preserving their culture are brought to the forefront by filmmaker Emma Håkansson, highlighting their resilience and innovation in sustainable fashion.
SHIRINGA, a short film from Collective Fashion Justice (CFJ), introduces a revolutionary bio-leather created by the Indigenous Awajún community in the Peruvian Amazon. Made from tree sap, this sustainable material offers a renewable alternative to animal-derived leather and fossil fuel-based materials.
Directed by CFJ founder Emma Hakansson, the film follows the journey of shiringa bio-leather, from its origins in the rainforest to its development at Lima's Caxacori Studio. SHIRINGA also shines a spotlight on Awajún women, Doris and Rosalia, who explain the cultural and environmental importance of their community's work with this age-old material.
Shifting away from traditional leather production, shiringa provides the fashion industry with a durable, water-resistant, and flexible solution. At the same time, it helps the Awajún protect their land from deforestation while supporting economic development.
Already honoured at the Seattle International Fashion Film Festival and the Nature Without Borders International Film Festival, SHIRINGA showcases how fashion can evolve through Indigenous knowledge, ethical practices, and regenerative solutions that benefit both people and the planet.
We caught up with Emma Hakansson in 5 Minutes with a Friend to hear her thoughts on textiles as inspiration in the film, now available for viewing on WaterBear.
Emma, what is your first memory of a textile?
My Farmor (Swedish for my Grandma, specifically my Dad’s Mum) did a lot of sewing, jewellery making and other creative works. She sewed a patched quilt for me, that I slept with from when I was a baby until I was too big to sleep under it – perhaps at about nine. It was cotton, with padding inside, and had ladybirds, flowers and little houses on it. It’s packed away in a memory box now.
Can you put into words what you love about textiles?
Textiles are an art form that can be worn as decoration and an extension of identity, they can be felt and explored in a tactile way that is forbidden for so many other forms of visual art. They transform as they age, and with care that can improve them: the memories they hold, the repairs that add to their character when done well. When they are handmade without harm to people, our fellow animals or the planet, they feel especially intimate, building and maintaining relationships between the wearer and the world they exist as part of.
If you make textiles, where is your most inspiring space / place to create?
While I don’t make textiles, last year I visited the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest to produce and direct Collective Fashion Justice’s new film, Shiringa. The Awajún women made a shiringa bio-leather textile deep in the forest, surrounded by bird and insect songs, the light trickling through leaves while the heat stayed above the canopy tens of metres above our heads. This is where shiringa trees have their sap collected, in a regenerative way that does not harm the tree: the tree they showed me had been used for generations.
After, the sap is taken to a place where a native Peruvian cotton fabric is strung across a branch-made frame, and the sap is mixed with natural dyes before being painted over the cotton in a number of layers, creating a leather-look. They did this as children watched on from under the open sided hut, a flowing river cradled by jungle, some people swimming in it behind them. I think that is a pretty spectacular place to create: within the ecosystem their material is made from, and also helps to protect.
What has inspired you recently? This could be a book, film or an exhibition you have seen or an artist / designer you admire.
The Awajún people who create shiringa bio-leather have been inspiring me – and my film is a way to invite others into that inspiration. The community defends their land against deforestation, which is largely driven by both cattle ranching and mining (tied to animal-derived leather and fashion’s oil use), by producing a much needed solution for the fashion industry. Shiringa bio-leather is an example of fashion and textiles at its best, helping to render fashion’s worst to history. With the support of Lima-based Caxacori Studio which operates in a conservation agreement with the community, the shiringa bio-leather has also become more durable and suitable for wider fashion use, and its creation helps uplift communities seeking better education and nutrition. They are solving problems for an industry causing them harm, while looking after themselves.
Shiringa bio-leather jacket, Mozhdeh Matin, Fall/Winter 2024 Collection
What is your most cherished textile, and why?
I have two: the shiringa bio-leather jacket made by designer Mozhdeh Matin, which was featured in the film and then gifted to me. When I smell it, I am reminded of being in the Amazon where the material was made. I have touched the trees it came from.
The second, an undyed knitted turtleneck that was created as part of the production of my first short film, Willow & Claude. It is made from Australian cotton, grown in Emerald, Queensland, with more responsible practices like rotational cropping and others that prioritise soil health and biodiversity. For this textile too, I have stood in the cotton field that made it, in fact I have a dried and bloomed cotton bud from that field on my desk as I write this.
Where did you learn your craft?
My form of artistry is not specialised to textiles, but I hope, to storytelling that can connect people to their clothes: understanding the importance of choosing those which genuinely benefit people, our fellow animals and the planet, when so many do not. So many are born from the commodification and killing of animals, through unjust labour that exploits skilful artistry, and that decimates our shared planet. That kind of textile is far less beautiful to me, but I believe in a total ethics fashion future where we all know and can be proud of how the fabrics we wear came to be.
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Further Information:
SHIRINGA is free to watch on WaterBear: Watch the Film
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Image Credits:
Lead Image and Images 1/2/3/4/5/7: Courtesy of Emma Emma Håkansson, CFJ
Image 6: Mozhdeh Matin