“The obvious losses in the natural world, such as the whales and elephants — the megafauna — are manifestations of the more invisible losses. One of the delights of exploring nature is entering that realm of subtlety where the smallest detail matters: The molecular composition of the soil. The microscopic creatures in the water.”
M. Soule, conservation biologist.This collection is inspired by the unexpected and often undiscovered beauty that lies below the waves.
We collaborated with marine biologist and underwater photographer Alexander Semenov and rendered his photographs of incredible marine creatures into high quality prints and patterns for our clothes.
At Skin of Nature we celebrate these creatures not only by recognising the beauty of their textures and shapes, but also by appreciating the fundamental role they each play for our Planet and sharing knowledge about it.
Nature is not a place elsewhere, it is what we are and what we love.
Since the our launch we commit to pledge 1% of our sales to grassroot environmental organisations to promote environmental awareness, habitat restoration and protection. For any product made in collaboration with Alexander we will donate to his NGO Aquatilis.
Would you like to dive with us?
“Up to today humans only discovered 5% of what we believe lives in the Planet’s Oceans and my team and I are dedicating our lives to find out more about it. The sea angels, like sea butterflies and jellyfish provide a crucial source of food for the marine ecosystem and consequently they are at the very basis of animal and humans food chains. But they are also extremely beautiful and fragile. Rising sea temperatures due to climate change are changing the life of many marine creatures in ways that we are still not aware of. Increasingly warm and polluted waters are threatening the health of our ecosystems and us, scientists, are trying to understand how and how fast.” A.Semenov, Aquatilis 
DISCOVER THE CREATURES THAT INSPIRED OUR COLLECTION
Barrel jellyfish
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CREATURE NAME
Rhizostoma pulmo, or Barrel jellyfish
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NATURAL HABITAT
It is found in the northeast Atlantic, and in the Adriatic, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Sea of Azov + British waters.
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DIMENSIONS
It typically is up to 40 cm (16 in) in diameter, but can exceptionally reach 150 cm (59 in).
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CURIOUS FACTS
It’s edible! You can make a salad with it. It is a favourite food of the leather back turtle. Barrel jellyfish feed entirely on tiny plankton, so their sting is too weak to hurt humans.
Giant clam
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CREATURE NAME
Tridacna gigas, or Giant clam
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NATURAL HABITAT
Throughout the Indo-Pacific region
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DIMENSIONS
From 20 to 100 cm, largest living bivalve mollusks. The largest known T. gigas specimen measured 137 centimetres, the weight of the two shells was 230 kilograms.
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CURIOUS FACTS
It was known in times past as the "killer clam" and "man-eating clam". Tridacna gigas is one of the most endangered clam species. They are becoming endangered by intensive exploitation by bivalve fishing vessels.
Pacific sea nettle
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CREATURE NAME
Chrysaora fuscescens or Pacific sea nettle
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NATURAL HABITAT
Northerns and Eastern Pacific Ocean.
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DIMENSIONS
This one is young but they are 50-70 cm tall with 8-10 cm dome diameter.
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CURIOUS FACTS
Some jellies commute 3,600 feet (1,097 m) up and down in the water daily. Try that without a submarine!
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MORE
In recent years, C. fuscescens has become overly abundant off the coast of Oregon, which is thought to be an indicator of climate change. However, others suspect that the population is increasing because of human influences to coastal regions. It feeds on a wide variety of zooplankton, crustaceans, salps, pelagic snails, small fish as well as their eggs and larvae, and other jellyfish.
Sea Angel
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CREATURE NAME
Clione limacina, or Sea angel
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NATURAL HABITAT
Arctic ocean, Northern Pacific, Japan
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DIMENSIONS
3-5 cm
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CURIOUS FACTS
Sea angels (pteropods) are one of the most amazing groups of planktonic creatures. They can gather in great numbers - up to 500 animals in 1m3. They feed on sea butterflies exclusively, only 1 option in a menu list! They are known for more than 100 years, one of the most studied animals (physiology), but no one knows their full life cycle as when adults if not eaten by whales they sink to the abyss and disappear forever.
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ITS ROLE
They are whale food and one of the key components of arctic ecosystem. Pteropods live in all seas of the World ocean, but they are most abundant in the arctic and antarctic seas, where they form huge swarms with a biomass surpassing that of the rest of the zooplankton combined. These masses attract whales, which feed exclusively on pteropods in certain seasons.
Starfish
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CREATURE NAME
Culcita schmideliana, or Spiny cushion star
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NATURAL HABITAT
Tropical Indo-Pacific
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DIMENSIONS
Up to 30 cm
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CURIOUS FACTS
It’s a starfish! Almost spherical one, spherical-pentagonal to be clear. It can be found at depths down to about 92 m. This starfish often has several commensal animals in its body cavity or on its surface.
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ITS ROLE
Starfishes are scavengers and cleaners, they eat all dead stuff, clean reefs and stones. Without them you will have a forest of bacteria and algae on every stone underwater.
Brain Coral
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CREATURE NAME
Platygyra daedalea or Brain Coral
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NATURAL HABITAT
It occurs on reefs in shallow water in the Indo-Pacific region
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DIMENSIONS
Each creature is in fact a tiny polyp that live in colonies creating hard corals. Thousands of little animals together that usually form massive domes or boulder-shaped colonies which may be a metre (yard) or more in diameter
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CURIOUS FACTS
It’s fluorescent with bright green glow under UV light. The polyps of P. daedalea expand at night to catch planktonic particles floating by. However, this coral obtains most of its nourishment from the phytoplankton known as zooxanthellae it houses within its tissues. These provide organic carbon and nitrogen, the products of photosynthesis, to their host. To benefit from this symbiotic arrangement corals like these need to grow in shallow, sunlit environments.
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ITS ROLE
It’s a reef-building coral! Reefs are beautiful and very important. They store carbon, create their own unique ecosystem supporting millions of different marine species, protect us from waves and more.
