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Elissa Brunato
Concept designerElissa Brunato’s challenge was a simple one: to make a sequin that isn’t an ecological nightmare. Despite the ability of these tiny shiny specks of sparkle to make people feel so in the mood to party, sequins are one of the worst possible materials we can wear.

Brunato, 30, who graduated from the Material Futures MA at Central Saint Martins this summer, spent seven years as an embroiderer before enrolling at CSM. ‘I like to research and uncover what our material things are really made of, and where these raw materials come from and how they impact us or our environment,’ she says.

She had seen the problems created by sequinsfirst hand. ‘They disperse so easily and this comes with a set of environmental problems. In many case studies of suppliers and designers, I found that these tiny discs, normally 3-5mm in diameter, are leaking into our environment through all stages of our manufacture, consumer use and washing, to ultimately our garments.’ They get everywhere, from the embroidery atelier’s floor where they are swept up and thrown away, to the pieces that detach as they are washed.

‘Sequins are most commonly made from petroleum based plastic, that is not biodegradable and is also drawing from a raw material source that is finite,’ she says. ‘To be more specific, most plastic sequins available within supply chains today mainly use PVC, which contains many toxic and carcinogenic chemicals. Their size also makes them impossible to recycle from garments and this causes a linear system of take-make-dispose and most of the plastic used ends up in landfill or into the environment.’

Urgh. Yet we can’t seem to get enough of them. They are the life and soul of the party. As Brunato found in her research, we’ve been wearing things that shimmer since ancient Egyptian times, from gold coins to iridescent beetle wings. The desire for sparkle and shimmer has even been associated with our instinctive need for water. So rather than deprive us of things that glitter, Brunato has created a bio iridescent sequin that shimmers in a rainbow of colours. It is made from biodegradable cellulose, which can be derived from waste food streams, so it doesn’t even use wood supplies. The colour comes from the material itself so there is no need to introduce toxic dyes.

‘Cellulose has the ability to form a structure that can interfere with light to produce a colour,’ she explains. ‘It is possible to control these structures in order to change the colour, and in the future I project many objects to be coloured in this way.’

The results of her research are far reaching, yet Brunato estimates it will be at least five years before they are ready for industrial use. Her mentor, Claire Bergkamp, who is head of sustainability at Stella McCartney will no doubt be first in line. ‘A lot of development needs to be made in the manufacturing space to support their use. They will find their ground as we develop technologies that actually make them superior to petroleum-based materials.’ Her idea is that ultimately, the sequins can be lab grown locally to the embroidery houses to cut down on air miles and the supply chains now involved in most embroidery components – they might even be made using the local food waste.

‘At the moment, these developments are still far away from a mainstream garment, but things can speed up unexpectedly and voices that speak about the future rise from a younger part of our population than ever before,’ says Brunato, who is setting up her studio in London and hopes to continue to develop her research. ‘That makes me positive.’


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WORDS TAMSIN BLANCHARD | PHOTOGRAPH EDD HORDER