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Fancy swapping leather for pineapple leaves and grape skins from wine? How fashion brands are moving into wearable waste with sustainable vegan leather – and even Gucci and Hermès are getting involved

Off The Grid is Gucci’s first circular fashion line, using recycled, bio-based and sustainable materials. Photos: Handout
Off The Grid is Gucci’s first circular fashion line, using recycled, bio-based and sustainable materials. Photos: Handout
Fashion

  • As more consumers look for animal-free fashion, companies like Newlight Technologies offer carbon-negative Covalent products made with its AirCarbon biomaterial
  • Footwear brand O2 Monde and vegan bag maker Mashu work with plant-based materials, and with Gucci and Hermès also testing the waters, the future looks promising

In a 15-metre steel tank on the sunny coast of California, millions of microscopic organisms are having a feast. On the menu is a delectable soup of greenhouse gases, served with a side of fresh air. From this invisible meal, they’ll produce something called polyhydroxybutyrate, or PHB, a biodegradable plastic which will later be turned into a biomaterial known as AirCarbon. One of its primary uses? Making leather goods where no cow is harmed.

Working out how to conjure such a material from thin air was no easy feat. It took Mark Herrema and Kenton Kimmel, founders of Newlight Technologies, nearly two decades of trial and error to get to where they are today – namely, on the brink of permanently disrupting several industries with their creation. The brilliant thing about Newlight’s AirCarbon is that it uses waste gases – like the millions of tons of methane that is emitted by dairy farms, landfills and abandoned coal mines annually – as feed for the microorganisms. Forget carbon neutral: this material is carbon negative.

Pellets of Newlight Technologies’ AirCarbon and the leather – marketed under the name Covalent – made from them. Photo: Covalent
Pellets of Newlight Technologies’ AirCarbon and the leather – marketed under the name Covalent – made from them. Photo: Covalent
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AirCarbon is already being used to produce leather goods under the brand name Covalent. The aesthetic is slick, minimalist and monochrome, and every piece – from classic totes to unisex phone sleeves – comes with its carbon footprint fully traceable via blockchain technology. If talk of bacteria and blockchains seems all too futuristic, get used to it: it’s a future that’s already here.

“Since Newlight uses methane as a food source for our microorganisms, our Covalent products are carbon negative and help reverse the flow of carbon in the environment,” says CEO Herrema, adding that Newlight is already working with several major fashion companies.

And methane isn’t the only waste product cleverly being turned into leather. Perhaps the most buzzed-about alternatives are the new breed of plant-based leathers made from food scraps: apple skins peeled away during commercial apple juice production, corn, cactus, pineapple … even discarded grapes from winemaking. Yes – you can now drink your wine and wear it too.
Mirco Scoccia is the founder and designer behind O2 Monde shoes. Photo: O2 Monde
Mirco Scoccia is the founder and designer behind O2 Monde shoes. Photo: O2 Monde

Footwear brand O2 Monde works with a variety of these plant-based leathers. Founder and veteran shoe designer Mirco Scoccia says it’s hard to notice the difference: “All the materials are very durable – equal to or better than traditional leather. The look and feel are the same as leather: soft, breathable and perfect for each type of shoe from dress to casual.”

O2 Monde have made metallic-finish heels from Piñatex, a leather substitute derived from discarded pineapple leaves. Photo: O2 Monde
O2 Monde have made metallic-finish heels from Piñatex, a leather substitute derived from discarded pineapple leaves. Photo: O2 Monde

Indeed, among O2 Monde’s offerings, you’ll find everything from red carpet-ready metallic heels made from Piñatex (derived from discarded pineapple leaves) through to chunky hiking boots made from Desserto cactus leather.