No Ordinary Cloth: Textile innovations in future materials, manufacturing and sustainability

Ep 2: From Garden waste to Leather with Daniela Rondinone

No Ordinary Cloth: Textile innovations in future materials, manufacturing and sustainability

Show Notes

Who doesn't love a beautiful leather jacket or bag. Sadly, the leather industry's high water and chemical waste from the tanning process is extremely polluting. And faux leather is made from polyurethane and plastics. So can we ever use leather products without feeling guilty?

Join me as I find out from Daniela Rondinone, the Business and Operations Manager at Biophilica, all about alternative leather that is plastic free and recyclable. Learn about how autumn leaves are transformed into leather that seems to bring the best of both natural and faux leather industries together into one perfect solution.

Daniela also highlights the qualities and skills you need to be a textile researcher and innovator.

Find out more here

TreeKind at Biophilica:

https://www.biophilica.co.uk/treekind

Daniela Rondinone:

https://daniela.rondinone.info/

[email protected]

Connect with Mili Tharakan:

[email protected]

Insta: @noordinarycloth [https://www.instagram.com/noordinarycloth/]

More from No Ordinary Cloth: Textile innovations in future materials, manufacturing and sustainability

Oct 11, 2026

Flocking is one of those techniques we have all touched without knowing its name: the velvety surface on a wallpaper, a piece of packaging, a couture garment or a car dashboard. It is made from tiny fibres, electrostatically charged so they stand upright in an adhesive, and for most of its history those fibres have been nylon, polyester or viscose.

Aug 5, 2026

What if the fashion industry didn't have to create waste in the first place? In this episode of No Ordinary Cloth, Mili sits down with textile designer and founder of WEFFAN, Graysha Audren, to explore a radically different way of making clothes: garments that are folded, flat‑packed and "baked" straight into the weave on a jacquard loom.

May 15, 2026

In this episode, we step into very different territory. We leave the factory floor and the chemistry lab behind, pull on our wellies, and head into the wetlands. Our guest is Julian Ellis-Brown, CEO and Co-founder of Ponda [https://www.ponda.bio/] — the biomaterials company turning wetland restoration into one of fashion's most exciting new fibres. We explore why wetlands are one of the most carbon-rich and biodiverse ecosystems on earth, why centuries of drainage have turned them from the planet's greatest carbon store into a significant carbon emitter, and how a farming practice called paludiculture is now allowing farmers across the UK and Europe to bring degraded wetlands back to life — while still earning a living from the land.

May 11, 2026

We're used to thinking about sustainability at the point of purchase: what fibres a garment is made from, whether it's certified or recycled. But the truth is, what we do with a garment after we buy it – how we wash it, whether we repair it, and what happens when it's finally worn out – is just as important as what it's made of.

See all episodes →