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Fashion
LifestyleFashion & Beauty

Shoes made from grapes, bags made from mushrooms: vegan leather has fans in Hermès and other fashion brands, but alternatives to hide have their drawbacks

  • The tanning process that turns animal skins into usable and wearable leathers has regularly been slammed as wasteful and potentially toxic
  • Vegan alternatives to hide leather exist, but one industry insider says they are ‘not there yet’ in terms of hand feel, breathability and appearance

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Trainers made from grape waste by Pangaia – one of the many fashion companies seeking vegan alternatives to leather made from animals.
Sian Powell

Pineapple leaves, fungus fibres, sugar cane, cactus: all botanical elements used in the production of various kinds of plant-based leather. Inspired by the environmentally sustainable thinking now sweeping the world, these so-called vegan leathers have become increasingly popular alternatives to hide leather.

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Allbirds, a New Zealand-US firm, has produced a type of sneaker partly made from eucalyptus tree fibre. Pangaia, based in London and New York, has developed a shoe made partly from grape waste. Even French luxury brand Hermès has designed a bag using mushroom-based leather: the “Victoria” travel bag, made of canvas, calfskin and “Sylvania” – an amber-coloured fungi thread derivative – should be available by the end of this year.

“I think anything that’s an alternative to traditional leathers is probably worth exploring, because of all the issues we have with industrial cattle farming, and then with tanning and all the challenges there,” says Edwin Keh, chief executive officer of the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel.

Cattle raising for beef, milk or leather is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases, and considered inhumane by some, and the tanning procedures used to transform animal skins – mostly cattle hides – into usable and wearable leathers have regularly been slammed as wasteful and potentially toxic.

The “Victoria” bag by Hermès is made with a leather alternative. Photo: Coppi Barbieri
The “Victoria” bag by Hermès is made with a leather alternative. Photo: Coppi Barbieri
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A great deal of creativity and scientific development has gone into understanding the potential of plant-based leathers, Keh says, and he expects the field to expand and the products to improve. “Our sense is that they are at the early stages yet, they are still something that approaches the performance of traditional leather,” he says. “Probably there’s some compromise of hand-feel, breathability; the overall appearance, the aesthetics of it still are not there yet.
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