Apr 4, 2024
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Malai – (noun) a newly developed biocomposite material made from entirely organic and sustainable bacterial cellulose, grown on agricultural waste sourced from the coconut industry in Southern India. We work with the local farmers and processing units, collecting their waste coconut water (which would otherwise be dumped, causing damage to the soil) and re-purposing it to feed the bacteria’s cellulose production. One small coconut-processing unit can collect 4000 litres of water per day, which we can use to make 320 sq. meters of Malai.
Malai is a flexible, durable biocomposite material with a feel comparable to leather or paper. It is water resistant and because it contains absolutely no artificial ‘nasties’ it will not cause any allergies, intolerances or illness. It is a completely vegan product and as such you could even eat it!*
*but it’s way too pretty for that…
Just found out about this material from a magazine article about a materials research company. Seems like it’s an interesting material, though the ingredients are produced in South India and the company is based in Czechia/Slovakia so it has a transport cost/ isnt exactly a possibility for ‘local’ production. Plus it’s not terribly affordable (something like 30-40 EUR / sqm), though that’s to be expected of a new technology. I think it’s more interesting as a futuristic/sci-fi resource than a practical one at the current moment for us, but food for thought.
Eco-Leather Alternative Made From Spent Beer Grain
What Happens When Your Leather Comes From Beer, Not Cows Imagine a world where your jacket, bag, or car seat comes from leftover grain that once brewed beer. That’s the idea behind Arda Biomaterials, a London-based startup turning spent brewery and distillery grain into a plastic-free, animal-free leather alternative called New Grain™. Traditional leather sits at the intersection of heavy…
scoby patches!
From mushroom to luxury handbag: will fungi soon take over from leather?
In the search for alternatives to animal leather, fungi seem to be the new ecological gold. Will they soon hang in our wardrobe?
A shoe, handbag or wallet that naturally recovers from a scratch? For that tour de force, the fashion sector looks to fungi.
Research into mushrooms (or fungi, those are synonyms) as an ecological alternative to leather is on the rise. The possibilities sound futuristic: from self-healing material to 3D printing techniques. Fashion brands such as Balenciaga[1], Stella McCartney[2], PVH[3] (the parent company of Tommy Hilfiger, among others) and Hermès have all entered into partnerships with companies that use fungi.
Or rather: on mycelium[4]. The true potential lies in that network of hyphae, explains Professor of Bioscience Engineering Eveline Peeters (VUB). “Mushrooms are the tip of the iceberg. You can compare the hyphae with the fruit, such as an apple. Mycelium, that's the tree itself.”
9,000 euros coat
How is fungi leather created? First you grow the fungus. A small amount of fungus is added to large containers of nutrient liquid. If you leave it for two weeks at the right humidity and temperature, a layer of hyphae will grow on it.
‘We call that layer the skin,’ says Peeters. "After two weeks it is harvested and treated to make it look like leather." Two weeks of production time is considerably less than the three years that you have to count on average for leather.
Moreover, you need less than a hundred litres of water per square meter of mycelium. For the same amount of leather, that is about 10,000 litres. An interesting advantage for fashion companies that want to get rid of the large ecological footprint of leather. "And then you haven't even mentioned animal suffering," says Peeters.
All this means that many brands trip over each other to test mycelium, especially in the luxury segment. In 2022 Stella McCartney released a first handbag, for his winter collection of 2022 it was Demna Gvasalia at Balenciaga who released a first coat in the material. An oversized, long black coat, with a wink to the movie The Matrix.
But between a limited edition jacket worth €9,000 and a mass-produced product, there are still years of research, says Maurizio Montalti, co-founder of Sqim[5], the company that produced the material for Balenciaga's jacket. It is probably the largest European producer of mycelium with several thousand sheets of one square meter per year. “Within six years we hope to be able to produce on an industrial scale. Scaling up a biological process cannot be done in the blink of an eye,” says Montalti.
Elite ecology
The fact that you can make mycelium in a lab makes it interesting and complex at the same time. "I compare it to antibiotics," says Peeters. “It took years of intensive research to perfect it.”
One of the variants with which the researcher achieves the best results comes from a fungus that one of her students picked in a forest in Linkebeek[6], near Brussels. "How many other varieties would be even better, we have no idea yet."
Mycelium may be more environmentally friendly than leather, but it is not cheaper. Currently, it costs about the same as high-quality leather[7], the leading fashion website Business of Fashion (BoF) reports.
That price tag prevents the material from quickly reaching the general public. ‘And that is a pity,’ says sociologist Aurélie Van de Peer (KU Leuven), who studies the mechanisms behind ecological fashion. “Ecology takes on an elitist side, it becomes a status symbol. That can't be the intention.”
Doubts as to whether mycelium will meet customer expectations also seem to dampen the fashion companies' initial eagerness. In 2021, starting companies that worked on non-animal leather raised almost 900 million euros. A year later that had already dropped to 420 million dollars. This is evident from a report by think tank Material Innovation Initiative[8]. ‘While more research is needed,’ says Montalti.
As good as leather?
Hermès, maker of luxury handbags, invested 125 million dollars in Mycoworks[9], a California company, in early 2022. But apart from some photos of a prototype, we don't see anything on the shelves. The launch was delayed several times.
An official reason is not given, but presumably the end result did not correspond to what luxury brands such as Hermès want to offer: timeless heirlooms that are passed down from generation to generation.
That customers do not adjust their expectations for ecological alternatives, designer Stella McCartney experienced with her first handbag, she told BoF[10]. “To make mycelium a success story, customers should not feel that it is a compromise. From the way it looks to the way it feels, there should be no difference from leather. As long as that is not the case, many brands will not take the plunge.”
Source
Karlien Beckers, Van paddenstoel uit Linkebeek tot luxehandtas: nemen schimmels het straks over van leer?, in: De Standaard, 13-04-2023, https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20230412_94376113
[1] Read also: https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/664321527312957440/from-dirty-to-vintage-luxury-embraces?source=share
[2] Read also: https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/676457111952179200/fashion-brands-are-launching-buy-back-programs-in?source=share & https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/672470746450345984/sustainable-luxury-between-recycling-and?source=share
[3] PVH Corp., formerly known as the Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation, is an American clothing company which owns brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Warner's, Olga and True & Co. The company also licenses brands such as Kenneth Cole New York and Michael Kors.PVH is partly named after Dutch immigrant John Manning Van Heusen, who in 1910 invented a new process that fused cloth on a curve.
[4] Read also: https://www.tumblr.com/earaercircular/667314088734507008/mushrooms-as-raw-material-for-leather-accessories?source=share
[5] SQIM is founded on the belief that innovative natural materials, grown by means of microbial fermentation, hold the promise for the creation of a near future where human activities and the rhythms of the larger ecosystem are not in conflict with each other. Accordingly, SQIM co-designs with nature to develop cutting edge technologies and deliver naturally grown products with superior properties, employing fungal mycelium as its engineering and manufacturing platform. https://www.sqim.bio/
[6] Linkebeek is a Belgian municipality in Flanders, part of the province of Flemish Brabant, and in the administrative district of Halle-Vilvoorde. The municipality only comprises the town of Linkebeek proper. As of 1 January 2006, Linkebeek has a total population of 4,759. The total area is 4.15 km² which gives a population density of 1,147 inhabitants per km².
[7] SARAH KENT, Would You Buy a Mushroom Handbag? In: BOF, 23-05-2022, https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/sustainability/would-you-buy-a-mushroom-handbag/ For the first time, brands including Stella McCartney, Balenciaga and Hermès are bringing products made of mushroom-based materials to market, an early test for whether the next-generation fabrics could one day hit the mainstream.
[8] 2022 STATE OF THE INDUSTRY REPORT: NEXT-GEN MATERIALS. Next-gen material companies raised at least US$456.75 million from 28 publicly disclosed deals in 2022. The 2022 State of the Industry Report: Next-gen Materials highlights the investments, innovation, and industry partnerships that significantly impacted the next-gen materials industry in 2022. 16-2-2023, https://materialinnovation.org/reports/2022-state-of-the-industry-report-next-gen-materials/
[9] MycoWorks is a biotechnology company based in Emeryville, California, with the mission to create the highest quality materials using mycelium. The company was founded in 2013 by Philip Ross, Sophia Wang, and Eddie Pavlu. https://www.mycoworks.com/
[10] SARAH KENT, Would You Buy a Mushroom Handbag? In: BOF, 23-05-2022, https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/sustainability/would-you-buy-a-mushroom-handbag/
Long time no tutorial!
Ok, tbh this is not tutorial but a Factsheet on the vegan leather-alternative CraftSkin which you can get at Minque.