A viable plant-based alternative to fur is on the fashion horizon. San Francisco-based BioFluff has closed a pre-seed funding round, securing $500,000 for its plant-based fur made from plants. BioFluff uses organic renewable fibre plants combined with biotechnology to produce its innovative alternative material to animal fur. The product is also free from plastic, and chemics, and is fully biodegradable, removing any environmental concerns surrounding synthetic fur.
Investors included SOSV/IndieBio fund, Joyance partners, and Ataraxia Partners Limited, among others, and will enable the startup to bring its flagship product to market next year.
“We are not trying to replace century-old traditions and craftsmanships, but we want to give everyone a new high-quality material to work with,“ Martin Stuebler, co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “We believe that after the alternative food market exploded the next innovations can be expected in the alternative material market.”
The company says they want to revolutionize the $35 billion global fur market and $2 billion synthetic fur market by utilizing “never before used” plants, such as agricultural waste, to produce textiles with a positive impact on animals and the planet. “We are planning on launching our first capsule product with one of our fashion clients in Paris in 2023,” said Stuebler. “We are currently growing our team of scientists to advance our fiber augmentation and finishing process.”
Many major fashion brands including Gucci, Michael Kors, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, and Moncler have removed fur from their collections in favor of more ethical and eco-conscious materials, while the former CEO of the Fur Trade Association has denounced the animal cruelty inherent in the fur trade as “indefensible”.
Despite the progress, around 100 million animals are still killed for their fur every year as part of the global fur trade, including coyotes, minks, raccoon dogs, and chinchillas. Animals are typically kept in cramped conditions where cannibalism and neurotic behavior is not uncommon. To harvest their fur, the animals are bludgeoned, skinned alive, electrocuted, or gassed. The trade is also detrimental to the environment, associated with water pollution, land degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Pioneers creating alternative materials, like Biofluff, offer a viable, cruelty-free solution to animal fur. And it seems the fashion industry is taking note. Global luxury fashion leader LVMH nominated the company to be part of its innovation award, designed to help startups and thought leaders “invent the future of luxury with fresh ideas and disruptive solutions”.
Other companies in the space include New York City-based material innovation studio and outerwear brand House of Fluff, that create vegan faux fur products using recycled fibers sourced from post-consumer waste. Elsewhere, a new material on the faux fur market is KOBA fur, a bio-based fur made from oil from vegetable crops.
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