Leather versus synthetics – five ways leather beats manmade products
We may be biased, but we’re also know we’re right! We look at the ways leather beats its manmade competitors.
Vitrolabs, a company that has discovered a tissue engineering process that can grow cowhide in a lab has just raised $46million in funding for production. This is undoubtedly amazing, but what problem is it solving?
Speaking to Forbes magazine, Vitrolabs’ co-founder Ingvar Helgason compared the process to science fiction and said: “We’re growing real animal hides in a lab and transforming them into leather.”
The company used the funding to move into a 45,000 square foot combined laboratory and manufacturing space.
It’s a very clever thing to do. In very broad terms, a biopsy is performed on a cow and the cells are fed into a bioreactor that is rich in nutrients. Then, over three to four weeks, the cells form tissue resembling animal hide. This can then be made into leather by tanning.
But you have to ask one simple question. Why? Hundreds of millions of cattle hides are thrown away every year. Every single one of them is a by-product of the meat and dairy industry.
We may be biased, but we’re also know we’re right! We look at the ways leather beats its manmade competitors.
You can still put style at the heart of your indoor wardrobe with our pick of lockdown leather.
Lu-Yun Lu is a composite material artist, fashion designer and illustrator based in Taipei at the Shih Chien University. She aims to insert meaning behind everything she creates. Her project ‘The Sight’ highlights the objectification and the labelling of
In this month's street seen Meet Zhao! He's a surfer and skateboarder from
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