Bio-Trimmings believes in crafting for the future of design and sustainability using science. By making beautiful jewellery & accessories from inedible food compounds, mainly from fruit & vegetable components, our team are passionate about making eco-friendly, re-purposed materials to make a powerful, beautiful, fashion statement.
You will find that most of our designs feature our durable and eco-friendly Bio-Gems, which are handmade in our London studio. Each one is individually handcrafted to create a beautiful, statement piece that promotes the endless possibilities and pushes boundaries of what can be achieved within fashion, from typically discarded materials.
Presented with recycled sterling silver, using materials sourced from UK suppliers, positive, ethical and sustainable practice are central to our brand ethos.
We are always finding new ways to define innovation, forward-thinking design ideas with thought and care.
About The Designer
British-born fashion designer, Hoyan Ip is the founder of Bio-Trimmings. It is the result of a passion for jewellery-making and a desire to prompt positive change in the fashion industry. It is her connection with the vibrant and fast-paced world of fashion, alongside a love of art, architecture, nature and contemporary culture, that serves as constant sources of inspiration for the brand.
Bio-Trimmings was founded in 2012, was first showcased during London Fashion Week as a collection of unique, sustainable, fashion trimmings such as buttons and buckles all handcrafted from inedible food extracts. It soon captured the attention of international press and industry interest with the innovative concept of creating unique, fashion products from domestic food waste collected from her local community and transformed into beautiful sustainable products. Most importantly, it shows how interlinking strong, scientific knowledge and food research with design makes an unusual and powerful statement promoting future sustainability by re-using wasted food to create luxury products that are both beautiful to look at and hold ethical meaning and imagination.
In addition to the Bio-Trimmings collection, Hoyan Ip has developed more to the range including unique pieces of jewellery, handbags, accessories and bouquets to add to the collection of products made from wasted food which have the advantages of being mould-free, odour-free and meat-free as well as being a statement fashion piece.
Sustainability
Sustainability to us is about meeting the current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Food waste refers to food appropriate for human consumption being discarded, whether or not after it is kept beyond its expiry date or left to spoil. Often this is because food has spoiled but it can be for other reasons such as oversupply due to markets, or individual consumer shopping/eating habits.
Did you know?
- Around 7 million tonnes of food is thrown away by households in the UK every year, and most of it could have been eaten.
- Little by little all this waste adds up, over a year the average family throws away around £700 of food shopping – equivalent to an annual utility bill.
- Some of the waste is made up of things like peelings, cores and bones, but the majority is, or once was, perfectly good food.
- Most of it ends up in landfill sites where it rots and releases methane, a damaging greenhouse gas. Throwing away food is also a huge waste of the energy, water and packaging used in its production, transportation and storage. If we all stopped wasting the food which could have been eaten, it would have the same CO2 impact as taking 1 in 4 cars off UK roads.
The Process: Turning Fruit Extract Into Stunning Sustainable Jewellery
Projects
A collection of work created including features in Clothes Show Live, London Fashion Week, Oxford Fashion Week, galleries, collaborations with graphic designers, stylists and artists across the world.
Ethical Fashion Shoot
Collaboration with Lesa Simons to create Bio-button bouquets and pin-holes.
A special commission created by Bio-Trimmings for Chinese New Year in Hong Kong.
Exhibition shown at Lam Wan Shopping Centre.
Traditional CNY Clothing, Ancient Chinese coins and gold all created and embellished with recycled food.
Bio-Posters were created for Pizza owner in Singapore.
Special collaboration between Bio-Trimmings and Graphic Designers, Doodleroom.
Main graphics are individually sculpted to create an embossed effect using wasted food and natural colours derived from leftover meals and sauces.
Wellcome Gallery, London Euston
An installation was created and set up first at Kingston University as a cash point and later created especially for a special exhibition at the Wellcome Gallery in London.
‘Scented Memories’ was a series of familiar, historical potions of scents created and installed inside a vented box which would allow the audience to step on and engage in all senses to trigger positive and/or negative memories, demonstrating the power of smell in a seemingly harmless environment.
2008
Founder, Hoyan Ip graduates in a Bachelors degree in fashion design and freelances as a designer.
2010
Studies Masters in Fashion in London
2011
She gets frustrated at how unsustainable the creative industry can be!
2012
Always wants to create something new! Hunts for new and unusual materials to use in her projects. Finds orange peel fascinating as a material and makes a statement body piece for her project.
2012
A button made from food waste is born! She continues to create all kinds of fashion trimmings from fruit and vegetable cut-offs naming this collection: Bio-Trimmings!
2012
Showcases first preview of Bio-Trimmings at the London Fashion Scout exhibition.
2013
Continues to research the facts regarding food waste and works closely with a couple of food scientists to develop the product further.
2016
Bio-Trimmings is founded!