Halfway between science fiction and haute couture, the German brand Enfin Levé, known for its technical and experimental approach to fashion, has created what it presents as the world’s first bag made with laboratory-grown tyrannosaurus skin. The innovative development aims to demonstrate that the future of the industry does not have to depend on the sacrifice of animals to obtain its materials.
The initiative has been carried out together with the VML agency, the genomic engineering company The Organoid Company and the sustainable biotechnology company Lab-Grown Leather. From the joint effort, a leather has been created from reconstructed dinosaur collagen, which has been used to make a unique avant-garde bag.
As explained by those responsible for the project, fossilized tyrannosaurus collagen sequences have been used and advanced computational technology and artificial intelligence have been applied to predict and reconstruct the remaining genetic information necessary to form a complete collagen pattern. The result is a material that is structurally identical to traditional leather, durable, repairable, biodegradable and fully traceable, grown without animal sacrifice, without impact on deforestation or high chrome tanning processes.
The material has helped Enfin Levé create a unique bag in the world, on which she has worked with designer Anastasia Bogonos. The brand assures that this particular leather “It has a unique, dense, primitive character, with its own logic” and that the design of the piece has been based “on the possibilities of the material, not on the conventions“. The bag has hardware designed by goldsmith Michal Danny Nowak and created in sterling silver; while the decorative details have been inspired by geology, prehistory and the biotechnology work behind the product.
“It took about 68 million years, but the T-Rex leather has arrived. “The first of its kind in the world.”said Bas Korsten, Global Creative Director of Innovation at VML, through LinkedIn. “T-Rex leather aims to change the perspective on lab-grown materials for the luxury industry. From imitation to inspiration”.
The intention of the initiative is to encourage the luxury sector to discover the possibilities of lab-grown leather as a solid alternative to animal skin. And in this sense, the agency assures that the bag is a milestone in the industry and opens the way to the configuration of a new sustainable luxury category.
“For us this is bigger than a single object. It is proof that leather is no longer limited by the animals we raise, but by the biology we can design.“, they have commented, for their part, from Lab-Grown Leather through LinkedIn. “It is a declaration of intent. Not only about what leather has been, but what it can become next”.
The bag has been on display at the Art Zoo Museum in Amsterdam since April 2, alongside a life-size statue of a tyrannosaurus acquired by the museum from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center. It is a replica of one of the most famous Tyrannosaurus rex specimens in the world, and together with it, the bag symbolizes a bridge between biology and luxury design. After being exposed to the public for six weeks, the bag will be auctioned, according to The Stable.
Before its exhibition, the initiative was presented as a teaser, with pieces of posters and under the concept “Jurassic chic”, during the celebration of Paris Fashion Week, which took place between March 2 and 10.
The Tyrannosaurus leather bag follows in the footsteps of “The Mammoth Meatball,” a meatball created with meat grown from the DNA of the woolly mammoth, an extinct species. It was a work by Wunderman Thompson Benelux – before becoming VML – for the Australian start-up Vow.
More info: T-Rex Leather
