leather has always been regarded as a representative of high-end materials. Its special color, tough quality and scarcity have made it popular in the fashion industry. A large number of handbag products under Hermes are made of leather materials.
Most of it even chose leather when it cross-border cooperation. Apple and Hermes launched the Apple Watch custom model, which also uses a leather strap, which has a high texture.
Recently, Hermes launched another leather handbag. In the past, most of this Birkin handbag could be auctioned for nearly 200,000 US dollars, but this new product is a bit special.
It is made with mushrooms.
Hermes bag made of mushrooms
The handbag mentioned above is a new product recently jointly produced by Hermes and Biomaterials company MycoWorks. Compared with the previous products, its special feature is that the raw material is a plant cultivation material Sylvania, and it is made of mushroom mycelium.
According to common sense, mushrooms are generally soft, and it is almost impossible to achieve the same toughness as cowhide. However, biomaterials companies have found that mushrooms naturally form a mesh structure during their growth, which allows them to fill in any desired shape.
Mycelium can grow freely in the tray after a unique fermentation process. After similar pressing adjustment, its texture becomes uniform and tough.
MycoWorks claims to have worked with Hermes to develop new plant leather materials three years ago, which make raw materials, while Hermes tanned and adjusted the plant leather material called Sylvania in a French tannery.
If you don't emphasize it, ordinary people can hardly see that this leather bag is made of mushroom mycelium. In terms of appearance, both wrinkles and gradient colors look the same as genuine leather. A spokesperson for MycoWorks also specifically emphasized:
It meets all standard tests for leather, including tensile strength, wear resistance, color firmness, etc., and even exceeds the requirements of the standard test in some indicators.
From Hermes' public statement, this is not a test work. The plant leather material Sylvania will be increasingly used in its leather travel bag categories, and corresponding products will be launched this year.
In fact, this is not the first time that plant leather materials are used in fashion clothing products. Mexican company Desserto developed a plant leather using local cactus. Desserto said that because cactus has low environmental requirements, planting a kilo of cactus only requires 200 liters of water, which is much lower than other plants.
▲ The leather bag made of cactus
In addition, Desserto will only pick mature cactus leaves and will not cause harm to the cactus plants themselves, so they can be harvested every 6-8 months to achieve continuous regeneration. Others include plant leather made of pineapple, vegetable oil, rice husk, etc., but compared with these mushroom myceliums used by MycoWorks, one advantage is that they cover a small area and can be cultivated indoors.
As for product prices, plant leather is not low. According to Forbes, Bolt Threads, which launched plant leather products earlier, has always been priced from $400 to $500, which is not cheap. The leather bags made by Hermes from plant leather Sylvania will also be available at the end of the year. As one of the well-known luxury brands, the price will not be low.
Although it can be mass-produced, the advantage of plant leather does not lie in its price, but in reducing environmental damage. This is also a selling point that many biomaterial companies and fashion brands such as Hermes have been emphasizing to the public.
The next fashion trend is plant leather?
If Bolt Threads was just an active attempt by a new brand when it released the plant leather bag in 2018, then 2021 is the year when the fashion industry has launched the trend of plant leather. The addition of the fashion brand Hermes has made the material of plant leather more and more popular.
In addition, the parent company of Lululemon, Gucci, Stella McCartney, Keiyun Group also announced that it will increase its investment in plant leather and speed up the launch of corresponding products.
▲The plant leather clothing launched by Stella McCartney and Bolt Threads jointly launched by Bolt Threads
Plant leather can be favored by fashion brands and is closely related to the development of technology. Bolt Threads' technology is becoming more and more mature, and Kering Group and Bolt Threads have also formed a business alliance. Kering Group provides no less than 7-digit funds to help Bolt Threads accelerate the development of the production industry chain.
Compared with traditional animal leather, plant leather has obvious advantages in the cultivation cycle. Whether it is cattle or crocodile, the cultivation cycle of animal leather common in the fashion industry is calculated in years and takes a lot of time, which also improves the scarcity of leather products to a certain extent.
production cycle of plants will be shorter. The cactus mentioned above is 6-8 months. Bolt Threads, a brand of plant leather made from mushroom mycelium, can even be cultivated within "weeks" and quickly enter production.
▲Bolt Threads claims that the material can grow in mycelium cells within two weeks
On the other hand, the use of animal leather has also been questioned by some consumers. Last year, Hermes was boycotted by animal welfare organizations for planning to build a farm that can accommodate 50,000 crocodiles in Australia, although the local government finally approved the project.
Environmental products are more attractive to some consumers. Market research firm Nelson once released a report saying that 2/3 of the world's consumers (including 73% of the 80s and 90s) expressed their willingness to pay more for sustainable brands.
This is also the point that biomaterial companies have always emphasized. The carbon emissions of plant leather are lower than those of animal breeding, and most of the materials are taken from nature. When consumers vote with real money, fashion companies such as Hermès will naturally try new materials. Plants such as cactus and mushrooms, even if they need to expand their planting, it is a good thing for protecting the environment.
And due to restrictions on local national laws and the influence of consumer public opinion, fashion companies such as Gucci have emphasized their own brands and related industrial chains to achieve carbon neutrality, and expressed their desire to use more sustainable materials. One of the most important events in fashion, London Fashion Week also began trying to promote fur-free activities in 2018, and products containing animal furs will not be used throughout the fashion venue.
The advantages of plant leather in production cycle and environmental protection have prompted fashion companies to choose it. It can be foreseeable that this year, companies including Lululemon, Gucci and other companies will produce large quantities of fashion products containing plant leather.
. Their continuous production will also drive the development of the industrial chain and help lower the price of plant leather products. Bolt Threads also stated that forming an alliance with Kering Group will help them mass production, thereby driving plant leather products to the same price range as animal leather products. In addition to the trend of
, plant leather also needs to solve many problems
From the perspective of consumers, plant leather is indeed a good alternative material. However, since there are few products available at this stage, it is impossible to make a comprehensive evaluation of the quality of such products. Only after the corresponding products are released in large quantities this year can an intuitive evaluation be obtained.
The production speed and production range of plant leather can be accelerated based on the existing technology through investment in fashion brands, but the faster production cycle than animal leather also raises a new problem for luxury goods industries such as Hermes.
An important feature of luxury goods is scarcity. Previously, both crocodile skin and calfskin needed to be cultivated for several years, and the quality may not necessarily meet the standards. This has resulted in a limited number of leather handbag products that can be sold every year, thus forming scarcity, prompting people to pay higher value for it.
But when it comes to plant leather, quantifiable and mass production are its important features. After losing its scarcity, luxury brands such as Hermes also need to think about how to improve product experience. Relying on environmentally friendly materials alone cannot guarantee the value of the product. When the freshness passes, whether people will still pay for plant leather will be a question mark.
In addition, as an emerging material, it is still unknown how environmentally friendly plant leather is. After all, environmental protection cannot be achieved by a company's measure or a replacement for plant leather material. It requires the participation of the entire industrial chain.
also accounts for a considerable proportion of leather products. Most of them directly refine petroleum products and produce polyurethane or PVC. This production process will also release a large amount of carbon and take decades to be naturally decomposed. Plant leather is also artificial leather, and there is no clear data comparison between the two.
Bolt Threads, which has a strong influence in the plant leather industry, also said that there is no data reference for the time being, how much carbon does plant leather emit and how much resources it consumes during the complete production cycle.
After all, there was a precedent before. The plastic bag, which is known as biodegradable, has not been degraded after being buried underground for three years. On the contrary, it can continue to be used, and can even be filled with 2.3 kilograms of debris without any impact.
I am afraid that everything will be clear only when Bolt Threads completes the independent life cycle analysis of plant leather in 2021. At that time, if plant leather can really significantly reduce carbon emissions, then it will not be far from its popularity.
