Fashion’s next material revolution may not come from a lab in Paris or Milan — but from the tides of the Red Sea. Along Saudi Arabia’s coastline, scientists, designers, and textile innovators are transforming Sargassum seaweed into a wearable fabric, turning a fast-growing marine biomass into a new generation of sustainable textile. The initiative, led by KAUST Beacon Development in collaboration with the Saudi Fashion Commission and PYRATEX, is part of a broader effort to rethink how fashion sources its raw materials.

The project was recently presented as the Red Sea Seaweed Textile, demonstrating how locally sourced algae can be converted into blended yarns and finished garments. Stella McCartney does it. So why not Saudis?

“This material represents a milestone in our mission to build a future-focused, sustainable fashion ecosystem in Saudi Arabia. It demonstrates how local resources, scientific excellence, and creative talent can come together to deliver solutions for the global fashion industry,” said Burak Çakmak, CEO of the Saudi Fashion Commission.

KAUST’s role has been central. Its marine scientists studied the biochemical structure of Red Sea seaweed and developed responsible harvesting methods that preserve both the ecosystem and the algae’s functional properties.

An abaya made from seaweed?

“By researching the biochemical properties of Red Sea seaweed, we were able to integrate local algae species into an innovative blended yarn,” said Fiona Symes, COO of KAUST Beacon Development.

PYRATEX  then translated that biomass into textile form, blending the algae with Lyocell and organic cotton to produce a fabric that is breathable, traceable, and suitable for garment production. The Saudi Fashion Commission’s development studio produced complete garments from the material — not as conceptual pieces, but as real clothing.

Saudi Arabia’s fashion scene has been showing dynamic evolution. Recent runway shows in the Kingdom featured bathing suits in a historically very modest country.

These shows reflect a larger shift in how fashion in the Middle East engages global trends while honoring local sensibilities — moving beyond traditional expectations to embrace broader stylistic expressions that include functional, climate-appropriate swimwear alongside couture and everyday wear.

The seaweed fabric project reflects a growing shift across the fashion world. Designers such as Stella McCartney have long argued that sustainability cannot rely only on recycled synthetics or reduced harm. McCartney has repeatedly called for materials that are regenerative, ethical, and transparent — fibers that restore ecosystems rather than merely slow damage.

Luxury and performance brands alike are now experimenting with algae, mycelium, pineapple fiber, cactus leather, and agricultural waste. But what makes the Red Sea initiative distinctive is its regional grounding: a local marine resource transformed locally, with scientific validation and design integration.

Fashion is one of the most environmentally demanding industries on Earth, responsible for heavy water use, chemical pollution, and carbon emissions. Changing fabrics may seem small, but materials determine supply chains, farming practices, and waste streams.

Seaweed offers a radically different model. It grows without freshwater irrigation, fertilizers, or farmland. It absorbs carbon and regenerates rapidly. It does not compete with food systems. And it invites coastal stewardship rather than land exploitation.

For Saudi Arabia, this project also signals a broader narrative shift. The Kingdom is increasingly positioning itself not only as an energy producer, but as a knowledge and innovation economy — where science, sustainability, and culture intersect.

For fashion, the message is equally clear: the future of luxury will not be defined only by design houses, but by material intelligence. Garments made from seaweed may not replace cotton or polyester tomorrow. But they challenge designers, investors, and consumers to imagine clothing that begins in ecosystems rather than factories.

As Stella McCartney and other sustainability leaders have shown, fashion does not change when trends shift. It changes when materials do.

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Researchers from Oregon State University’s (OSU) Hatfield Marine Science Center have created a new strain of seaweed with potential to grab the title for World’s Top Superfood. The newly patented strain of the red-leafed algae dulse, a lettuce-like plant that grows in the wild along Atlantic and Pacific coastlines.  It’s packed with protein and minerals, but the commercial money-card is that this subaquatic crop tastes like bacon!

“Dulse is a superfood, with twice the nutritional value of kale,” Chuck Toombs, an OSU College of Business staffer and part the team working to develop the product into food said during a press conference. The project initially explored how dulse might feed farmed abalone, but researchers quickly realized its potential in the human-food market.

“There hasn’t been a lot of interest in using it in a fresh form. But this stuff is pretty amazing,” said chief researcher Chris Langdon. “When you fry it, which I have done, it tastes like bacon, not seaweed. And it’s a pretty strong bacon flavor.”

Supported by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, the researchers are working with the university’s Food Innovation Center and “research chefs” from as far away as Norway to concoct recipes using dulse as a main ingredient. They’ve patented this new strain of succulent red algae, anticipating forward demand – so far creating dulse-infused salad dressing and crackers. The seaweed can be used fresh or dried.

The appeal of dulse is multi-layered. It’s protein-rich (about 16% of its dried weight), and loaded with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.  It grows quickly and inexpensively in natural or farmed settings.  To date, no one has attempted to grow it on a commercial-scale for human consumption. But now that this new variety replicates the taste of artery-clogging, salt-laden, Big Food-produced bacon, seaweed farming is a new game.

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Tel Aviv’s Nir Meiri recently unveiled Marine Light – a curious lamp shade made entirely of seaweed wrapped around a spindly metal frame.

Eaten by coastal people all over the world and prized for its gelatinous and nutritional properties (see bottled algae superfood), and its use is being investigated for seaweed as biofuel, marine algae is harvested for everything from dental moulds and wound dressings to deserts.

But we’ve never seen a seaweed lamp shade before.

“Ancient cultures have appreciated and utilized seaweeds for different uses,” Meiri says on his website.”Today, seaweeds are cultivated and harvested on a commercial scale, as a result of a growing interest driven by environmental concerns.”

Meiri encloses the shade’s metal frame with seaweed that is still wet, according to the designer. Then, once it dries, the marine algae shrivels down and conforms to the shade’s shape. 

Once dry, he applies a preservative to the seaweed so that it doesn’t completely rot or flake off; the resulting lamp shade produces a luminescent glow that brings the sea indoors.

“Through the unconventional use of seaweed as a main material for a domestic environment, the product plays on the tension between the artistic and the commercial,” says Meiri.

Materially, the Marine Light is a sensible environmental choice as well since there are no algae shortages in the world and it reproduces very quickly.

This is the second funky lamp we’ve featured this week. If you haven’t already seen it, check out this clever lamp powered by the kinetic energy of shifting sands.

:: Gizmag

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Seaweed is prolific in Israel’s Mediterranean Sea. It makes sense, then, that Middle Eastern ancients used it to help alleviate a host of ailments from peptic ulcers to fungal infections and wounds.

Based on past and present literature, archeology, history, biology, linguistics and botany, the Natural Medicine Research Unit for the Study of Complementary, Alternative and Integrated Medicine at Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem is looking into how seaweed can be utilized for its nutritional and medicinal properties. Staffers have been working with Canadian partners to grow the novel idea into commercial projects.

The center’s exploration into the medicinal properties of seaweed and algae is part of its larger mission to “develop Israel’s flora in an ethical, sustainable, responsible green way,” says Sarah Sallon, the director and founder of the 17-year-old center. “And there are treasures to be found here, as our results already show.”

While she shies away from identifying the plant species she is working on in order to protect patents and IP, this is the same center that led the germination of a 2,000-year-old Judean date palm seed several years ago. This particular species is known for good results in treating respiratory problems and depression.

Less is known about plants from the marine environment, yet seaweed and its potential applications in biofuel, pharmaceuticals and nutritional supplements is already a target market for Israeli companies.

While the Japanese may attribute long life to their consumption of the green chewy nori, most of the world is only starting to learn about the unusual minerals and vitamins present in seaweed.

Applying ancient wisdom

Sallon says that plant genomes from the past, like the ancient date palm in Israel, could be used to tackle diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cancer. Gleaning some clues from old books by Maimonides, Pliny the Elder and Arab doctors such as Saleh, Sallon’s staff is working like detectives to uncover these secrets so they can be applied in the modern world.

The center’s Middle Eastern Medicinal Plants Project scientifically studies local species for new medicines while conserving them for future generations.

Sarah Sallon’s institute investigates healing properties of Israeli plants.

“We look at ancient sources to understand how natural products were used in antiquity. We can read hieroglyphics, cuneiform, Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Greek, Latin and of course the Romance languages of Europe, because everybody came here,” Sallon says of the Holy Land.

“The plants found in Europe are also found here, thanks to European conquests. We use a tremendous number of sources to examine ancient sources to work out how they can be applied today in both seaweed and in plants.”

While some plants from antiquity are mentioned time and again, the tricky part is figuring out what ailment they were used to treat. Coughing from tuberculosis is straightforward, but the symptoms of Parkinson’s, which was definitely around in ancient times, doesn’t always follow the patterns of description the medical community uses today, says Sallon.

She started working on a project called SEAMOP (the Seaweed and Marine Organism Project) with Canadian partners in the mid-1990s, after giving a lecture in Newfoundland and then meeting representatives of Canadian marine engineering firm Oceans Ltd.

The project was granted seed funding by the Canada-Israel Industrial Research Foundation and included researchers from Memorial University in St. Johns, Newfoundland. The Israelis focused on Mediterranean seaweed while the Canadians focused on Atlantic varieties long used by the indigenous Beothuk people.

“We have done baseline research on well over a hundred plants,” says Sallon, and some are ready to go to next stage of testing – which may be of interest for investors or strategic partners looking to develop drugs in this hot new area of science.

On both sides of the world, seaweed resources were surveyed for their commercial uses in medicines, foods, nutritional supplements and cosmetics. At the same time, the researchers in Israel developed new techniques for growing seaweed using land-based aquaculture, in conjunction with the Limnological Institute in Haifa, an Israeli center that is pioneering seaweed research.

::The Center’s website

This story is reprinted from ISRAEL21c- www.israel21c.org Above image via Univerve

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