• The eco-friendly hijab is an effort to bring the recycled fashion trend closer to Muslim women in Indonesia.

Inspired by Indonesian women who don hijab, a Japanese designer has created the world’s first eco-friendly hijab from recycled fish scale waste.

“Indonesian culture has the hijab, whereas in Japan there is not,” Erika Masuda told press in Jakarta, Antara News reported.

“The concept of the hijab in Indonesia attracted me to make a version using collagen material from fish scales, which are often thrown away carelessly and become waste.”

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She said she hopes that using fish scales as a basic material for making hijabs can one day become a solution to climate change and ensure environmental sustainability that can be replicated in other places.

Masuda is currently collaborating with Bubah Alfian, a designer from Indonesia, to design 12 Muslim fashion looks that will be showcased in Jakarta. This is an effort to bring the recycled fashion trend closer to Muslim women in the Indonesian capital.

Alfian believes there is no difference between collagen fibers from fish scales and regular woven fabric.

“I think this is the softest fabric I have ever held; it is cool, nice, and very comfortable,” Bubah said.

Indonesia is the most populous Muslim state where Muslims make up 80% percent of the 220 million population.

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.