I’ve subscribed to this really neat site called Materia for the longest time. It’s based in the Netherlands and it’s a really fun site to browse around. – www.materia.nl Ever since my first industrial design courses in college I’ve had a fascination with unique materials, fabrics, anything you can use to make.. anything. I go to the site once in awhile just to check out what interesting things have been brought to fruition in the textile industry.
My most recent find is.. Icelandic Wolf Fish leather. The Icelandic Wolf Fish is just that, a fish. Now I’m sure the Wolf Fish has been around a lot longer than Materia.nl but it’s the first time I’m seeing it used as a leather? As far as Materia goes, usually companies in the textile industry will create pages on Materia and upload a few of the projects they’re working on. In the case of Icelandic Wolffish it appears they are the company and the only product they have is Wolf Fish leather. It comes in a variety of shades and it’s “signature characteristic” is its dark spots as you’ll see below which kind of resemble a cheetah print if you look at the hide as a whole.
I could imagine it would be great for creating anything wearable as it doesn’t have scales like python, eel, etc.
Here it is in all its glory :
Used in tiny doses this fabric could be rather unique..
So here’s what the fish looks like in “real life”:
There are 3 different kinds.. the one placed on Materia is the Spotted Wolf Fish.. and is also the one I’ve seen most prevalent in design.
Here are a few different uses I’ve seen:
Givenchy Wolf Fish Sandals: (love)
This Stool:
And this kind of amazing hat by Jasmin Zorlu:
