Gaby
The fashion brand Ganni and material company Polybion unveiled the world’s first jacket grown from bacteria — a milestone for bacterial cellulose as a leather alternative, shown at the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen.
How Was This Innovative Leather Alternative Created?
The prototype outerwear was made by feeding bacteria mango fruit waste. Through a natural digestion process, the bacteria converted the sugars from the waste into cellulose.
After stabilization, the cellulose membrane was tanned like cowhide. Ganni used the resulting material to make a spotted yellow blazer with decorative silver buttons, which debuted at the sustainability forum during the Copenhagen fashion show.
A team of designers and material researchers spent years experimenting with bacterial cellulose, trying it in products from “compostable sneakers” and leather lamps to cosmetic packaging that looks like paper or plastic.
Polybion co-founder Axel Gomez-Ortigoza tells Dezeen that the collaboration with Ganni represents “the first product demonstration from a global brand” using a material the company calls Celium. He says the jacket marks the culmination of a decade of work on bacterial cellulose.
Bacterial Cellulose Is Better Than Mycelium
As the fashion industry searches for more sustainable leather substitutes, several brands — including Ganni, Adidas, and Hermès — have begun experimenting with mycelium leather, which is grown from the root structure of fungi. Gomez-Ortigoza argues that bacterial cellulose may be more sustainable than mycelium.
Celium made from bacterial cellulose requires fewer natural resources to produce. A preliminary life-cycle assessment found its carbon footprint is about a quarter smaller than mycelium leather while also yielding higher outputs.
As Gomez-Ortigoza says, a vertical biomanufacturing system similar to indoor farming makes bacterial cellulose production highly efficient. The process uses solar energy and heat, and all production happens under one roof — from waste to finished material.
The bacteria are genetically modified to produce cellulose with properties that let it compete with both real and synthetic leather. Gomez-Ortigoza says the resulting material already surpasses mycelium leather and is “approximately 80% better than animal leather.”
Alternative Leather Still Needs Improvement
Celium still relies on a petroleum-based polyurethane coating, which gives the material durability and allows either a synthetic or bio-based finish depending on the application. Adding dyes or pigments, however, makes the material much harder to dispose of without causing environmental harm.
Gomez-Ortigoza says bacterial cellulose still has room to improve before it fully outperforms animal leather. That will require better stabilization processes and genetic tuning of the strains.
Polybion is working to scale production at its facility in Irapuato, Mexico, which the company says is “the world’s first industrial-scale facility for producing bacterial cellulose.”
