Our Brand History
Orange Fiber was founded in 2014, in Catania Italy. The company presented its first fashion collection in 2017 in collaboration with the Florentine fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo. In 2019, citrus fabrics were chosen for the Conscious Exclusive Collection of H&M and was also featured in the capsule collection of luxury neckties designed by the revered Neapolitan tailoring brand E.Marinella.
Timeline of Milestones
October 2020
THE NEW PILOT PLANT
In October 2020 the company completed the creation of a new plant in Sicily and produced the first ton of a new sustainable fibre contributing to craft the future of the Fashion Industry in a greener way.
July 2019
EQUITY CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN
Between April and July 2019 the company launched an equity crowdfunding campaign with the goal of collecting €250k in order to increase production capacity and meet the demand of fashion brands. The campaign was a huge success and raised over €650k from 365 investors.
April 2019
FASHION COLLECTIONS
Between April and June 2019 the sustainable fabrics from citrus juice by-products have been included in the H&M Conscious Exclusive Collection and have been used to create a limited edition of ties by the artisan brand E. Marinella.
April 2017
MARKET LAUNCH
In April 2017 the first fashion collection created with the exclusive Orange Fiber fabric by Salvatore Ferragamo is presented.
December 2015
FIRST PILOT PLANT
In December 2015, thanks to the funds of Smart&Start by Invitalia, the first pilot plant for the extraction of citrus pulp opened in Sicily and the company completed the first fabric production.
September 2014
THE PROTOTYPE
In September 2014 the first prototypes of fabric from citrus cellulose were presented at the Expo Gate of Milan at Vogue Fashion's Night Out.
February 2014
THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED
In February 2014 Orange Fiber was formed as Italian Innovative Startup with headquarter in Catania. Two Business Angels, Trentino Sviluppo, and a lawyer financed the project.
August 2013
THE PATENT
From the feasibility study with Politecnico di Milano, the two women patented in August 2013 the innovation, then extended it in international PCT in August 2014.
October 2012
THE IDEA
In Italy every year, more than 700.000 tons of citrus juice by-products are produced, the disposal of which has high economic and environmental costs. Seeing an opportunity where others only saw a problem, Adriana Santanocito and Enrica Arena worked to develop a disruptive technology that creates an innovative fabric out of industrial by-products.