Modern Meadow

I got to be honest, to me this is an extraordinary technology and a great step to make fashion more sustainable. Some of you may or may not know about my history/life on the shoe manufacturing and production (you can READ HERE)A passion that something can be a nightmare (like many other professions).

Imagine the fact that, as a designer or  and owner of your own brand (start up brand) you want to built (or you are already  building a great project) With beautiful leathers, colors, textures and so on. The most amazing collection you have ever created with a great potential. All of the sudden your bubble despairs when your providers says… “Oh! but we can’t make that color. Oh, but the leather you want is very thick”

Last but not least. Ok, we can do that, BUUUT! —Damn “but” here we go again— we need a minimum  of 10,000 dm. per order and per color. 😭 At the end, you just want to forget about that project and of course you are disappointed,  right?— Good news, the future is here!!!

What is Modern Meadow?

A biotech start up, that is trying to bio-fabricate leather in a Lab environment.Which means.. 

Create leather which is a 100% natural without humming any animals” says Annelie Koller, Senior Design Research.

A raw material where the use of an animal is not primarily required to produce it. —Let me  tell you something, this is pretty awesome!!—

Who is doing this?

Designer, scientist & engineers. People who is constantly working on making changes in the world, working to create a more sustainable fashion.  

Forward thinking minds, continuously working in ways to improve the engineering of materials and ways to keep our ecosystem safe. Bringing material innovation of this kind can truly improve the future of fashion for better.

How those that work?

By using living cells to grow nature’s materials. They made real biological leather from a process entirely free of animals. Scientist working with  designers, in where they both are working on designing the cells that will become the colony which eventually become leather.

Creating categories off leathers, create a new leather texture or new leather structure. Optimizing collagen production, the protein which leather is basically made.

Who is the founder?

Andras is co-founder and CEO of Modern Meadow. Andras also co-founded Organovo (NYSE: ONVO), which commercialized 3D bioprinting to create human tissues for pharmaceutical research and medical applications.

Creative Officer is Suzanne Lee. With more than 20 years of experience in design research. The pioneer of start growing and proponent of biotechnology in textiles. She started growing microbial materials in 2003 and went on to establish Biocouture the first biocreative consultancy.

Perks of Biofabrication

1.-’Tunable’ leathers that are lighter, stronger, thinner, translucent or with unique new textures.

2.-Leather materials produced in precise sizes and shapes.

3.-Animal-friendly leather. Drastically reduced land, water, energy, and chemicals. Our pure collagen materials require minimal tanning in an efficient closed-loop system.

So, what do you think about this.

Am I the only one interested about this technology? I don’t think so!

If you guys know about new technologies that are helping the evolution of the fashion Industry. Please do let me know. This is an interesting topic to me, I hope for you too.

All the pictures Vai Web

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December  2016 and has been completely revamped and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.