Meet This Faux Leather Made From Algae and Fruit
Using plant-based leather has been a big part of the efforts to green the fashion industry. Now, a super sustainable vegan leather that is made from algae and fruit waste that is fully biodegradable is jumping on the bandwagon.
PEELSPHERE™, designed by Berlin-based textile designer Youyang Song has the mission to transform the leather and fake leather industries by making a beautiful, durable, and carbon-reducing product, according to Future Materials. The faux leather was created by the intersection of design and material science to inspire a sustainable lifestyle.
How was PEELSPHERE™ developed?
Song began experimenting with leathers made of fruit leaves when she couldn’t find anything on the market to use for her designs, reported Deezen.
“I started off as a textile designer, I was surprised that I could not find a completely biodegradable material on the market for my design work,” she told Dezeen. So she set out to create an alternative to leather and the synthetic leathers that were on the market.
“I was thinking about developing a biodegradable material that can preserve the smell, the refined texture, and the tactile quality of the fruits,” said Song.
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Song and her design studio of engineers went to work on transforming fruit waste like orange and banana peels and extracted the fiber and pectin from the peels before grinding them together with a bio-binder. This mixture forms sheets of leather-like materials that can be dyed and 3D-printed into large sheets that can be cut to size.
The results
The resulting material is waterproof and can be woven, embroidered, or sewn into finished products. PEELSPHERE™ can be hardened to form accessories like buttons or left soft and malleable to make purses.
There is a growing interest in using vegan alternatives to leather and this includes the British company Ananas Anam who manufacture a faux product called Piñatex which is made from pineapple leaves. Other brands use palm leaves, cacti, and adidas made a shoe from mushrooms.
PEELSPHERE™ is the next generation of plant-based leathers due to its versatility, ease of use and commitment to sustainability. Eco-friendly faux leathers might be the next fashion trend.
