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.
Josslyn Shi from California College of Art has been crowned Overall Winner of the Real Leather. Stay Different. International Student Design Competition at a glittering final event held at the U.S. Embassy in London.
As fashion begins to find its way again, designers continue to celebrate leather. In the Fall 2021 season of Haute Couture—among the layers of tulle, ruffles, lace and satin—leather unlocks a brave new world of accessible Haute Couture.
If designers want to stay relevant, it is vital they keep on top of new technology. Non-Fungible -Tokens are at the forefront right now, but do they have any role in the design and production of leather
The campaign trail to recruit students to enter the 2021 Student Design Competition in Taiwan has begun.
Having previously worked for high fashion houses such as Chloé, Balenciaga and Paco Rabanne, it was actually the unsettling image of piled-up leather offcuts left unused by big name brands that inspired Paris-based designer Bea Recoder to launch Reco.
