For example, designers are using deadstock, as leftover fabric is known – so much so that in April 2021, French luxury group LVMH launched Nona Source, the first online resale platform of deadstock materials, collected from the group’s houses. Now designers can purchase remnants from the ateliers of Dior, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton and others at a fraction of the original cost. Meanwhile, studio teams are sourcing hi-tech or recycled fabrics.
Last spring, Stella McCartney unveiled a prototype corset and trousers in Mylo, a lab-grown leather-like material made of mycelium – the root structure of mushrooms – developed by Bolt Threads in Silicon Valley. This spring, she is introducing the Frayme Mylo, a new handbag made out of the same material. She debuted it during her spring/summer 2022 show in Paris in October – the first mycelium to be presented on a runway.
Hermès, too, is about to launch a mycelium handbag: a limited edition of the Victoria, made with biotech company MycoWorks out of a material they call Sylvania. The company plans to scale Sylvania’s use throughout its product range. “The purpose is not to replace leather,” but to add to Hermès’ variety of materials, explains the company’s sustainability chief Olivier Fournier. “It’s a question of agility, and evolving with the world and situations we face today.
For companies that own their factories, new outposts are being conceived as sustainable from the get-go. Last September, Hermès inaugurated an environmentally friendly leather workshop in Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, on the outskirts of Bordeaux. Set on five-and-a-half hectares, the wood and concrete building was designed by green-minded architect Patrick Arotcharen to be as environmentally respectful as possible.