Pineapple fiber or Piña is a strong white or creamy cobweb-like fiber drawn from tall leaves of an indigenous pineapple plant. The fiber is hand stripped from the leaves in lengths of about 18 inches to 3 feet, sun-bleached, hand knotted and spun. As piña fiber recovery is only about 1%, it can take six months to gather enough fiber to produce two pounds of spun piña.
This video is a news clip from Asia Brief, a news channel in China. It features the genuine piña cloth from the Philippines. Pineapple fabric was discovered in the early 18th century. This fabric is use to make shirts being worn by rich businessmen and politicians during that time. This fabric is made from the leaf of a wild pineapple which can be found only in the western part of the Visayan Island, Philippines. Fibers are meticulously extracted from the leaf and made into threads. These sensitive threads are then patiently hand woven into a fine cloth by middle aged women using handmade bamboo equipment. The fabric’s width is 26 to 28 inches. A yard of Pineapple cloth can be done in a week time, working ten hours a day.
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