PROGRESS? Cows the world over rejoice, pineapple leather is now a thing.

While in the Philippines, [Carmen Hijosa] discovered the traditional fabric Piña (meaning ‘pineapple’ in Spanish), made of stripped and woven pineapple leaves.

This inspired Hijosa to explore the possibilities of the natural product. After some experimentation, she discovered she could use the fibres from the leaves to create a non-woven textile, similar to the method of making felt, and developed Piñatex, a leather-like fibre created as a by-product of the pineapple harvest.

As far as a substitute for leather goes, Piñatex beats pleather by a country mile.

Based on tests by the International Standards Organisation, Piñatex meets international standards for strength, colour fastness, water, abrasion and cigarette-burn resistance, and flexibility.

To be fair, most anything is an improvement over pleather.