08-08-2003, 01:33 AM
NAPLES, Fla., Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Fish tanners and designers hope eventually everyone will be wearing salmon, eel, stingray, sturgeon and carp to dinner.
A report Thursday by Scripps-Howard said clothing and accessories are already being shown by such haute houses as Dior, Givenchy and Bottego Veneta.
They include shoes and a purse made from salmon skin and a stingray clutch.
The skins become known as leather, as they are tanned and cured as any other animal's hide would be for as long as seven weeks.
Fish tanners in New Zealand, Ireland and France maintain the skins are as strong as crocodile leather and have the strength and durability of a man-made fiber. They are quite emphatic that no odors remain after tanning.
They also insist the skins come from fish that have been used for food, and no creature will die for fashion alone.
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A report Thursday by Scripps-Howard said clothing and accessories are already being shown by such haute houses as Dior, Givenchy and Bottego Veneta.
They include shoes and a purse made from salmon skin and a stingray clutch.
The skins become known as leather, as they are tanned and cured as any other animal's hide would be for as long as seven weeks.
Fish tanners in New Zealand, Ireland and France maintain the skins are as strong as crocodile leather and have the strength and durability of a man-made fiber. They are quite emphatic that no odors remain after tanning.
They also insist the skins come from fish that have been used for food, and no creature will die for fashion alone.
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