Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion

Costa de Pájaros (Costa Rica) (AFP) – On a beach in Costa Rica, as fishermen unload the day’s catch, two women work hard on the slimy skin of a sea bass, rubbing, scraping, washing and tanning the skin to transform it into leather.

Released on: 03/10/2024 – 07:29

4 minutes

Two years ago, both Mauren Castro (41) and Marta Sosa (70) were stay-at-home moms, dependent on their fishermen husbands to support their families of four and six, respectively.

Today they are part of the women’s cooperative Piel Marina (Marine Skin), which transforms fish skins that were previously thrown into the sea into sustainable fashion.

For generations, fishing has been the backbone of the economy in Costa de Pajaros, a village about 100 kilometers west of the capital San Jose.

Fishing was once the mainstay of the economy in Costa de Pajaros, Costa Rica, but fishermen say regulations aimed at making supplies more sustainable have made it harder to make a living © Ezequiel BECERRA / AFP

But fishermen say regulations aimed at making stocks more sustainable, which this year included a total fishing ban from May to July, have made life outside the sea more difficult.

Join the NGO MarViva, which two years ago helped train 15 women to become seaside tanners.

Women were initially skeptical about the sartorial possibilities of fish skins.

“We said, ‘How can leather, which smells and is waste, be the raw material for women to be successful?'” Castro, 41, told AFP.

Over time, however, they have perfected their profession and help supplement their families’ meager incomes.

Facebook and Instagram

Wearing blue rubber gloves and white T-shirts emblazoned with Piel, Marina, Sosa and Castro show how skin saved from filleted sea bass can become a pair of earrings, a necklace or even a handbag.

First, they gently rub the skin between their fingers to remove the scales and remaining flesh.

“Then we take it and wash it with soap, just like we would wash clothes. Then we dye with glycerin, alcohol and natural dye, and then dry it,” Sosa explained.

The fish skin dyeing process takes four days, with another four days needed to allow the skin to dry in the sun to create a fabric that is soft and pliable, yet strong. © Ezequiel BECERRA / AFP

The dyeing process takes four days, with another four days needed for the leather to dry in the sun to create a fabric that is soft and pliable, yet strong.

Most importantly, it no longer smells fishy and has the advantage of being waterproof.

The women are not only tanners, but have also become jewelry designers who sell colorful earrings and necklaces on Instagram and Facebook.

A pair of butterfly earrings costs the equivalent of about seven dollars.

The women also sell some of the leather to small textile producers in Puntarenas, the main port on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast.

Local tradition

Costa Rica is the latest country to tap into the potential of fish tanning, an age-old practice used by indigenous peoples from Alaska, through Scandinavia and Asia.

While salmon skins were traditionally used by the Ainu in Japan and the Inuit in northern Canada to make shoes and clothes, and on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya, the local delicacy tilapia is now used to make handbags.

Meanwhile, Brazilian company Nova Kaeru offers leather made from the discarded scales of the giant pirarucu fish, which comes from the Amazon.

Online, fish skin bags go for hundreds of dollars.

The earrings and keychains were made from fish skin by women from the Piel Marina cooperative on the Costa de Pajaros beach in Puntarenas, Costa Rica © Ezequiel BECERRA / AFP

One of the first high-profile fashion designers to become addicted to leather was former Dior creative director John Galliano, who wore an Atlantic salmon skin jacket and a fishskin bag in his 2002 collections.

For now, the women of the Piel Marina cooperative are happy to have a job that takes them away from their household duties and provides them with a small income.

But they dream of the day when the leather they handcraft on the beach becomes a star on the world stage.

Castro’s eyes shine at this prospect.

“I wish it could be seen in Hollywood, in Canada or on the big catwalks in Paris!”