Fermentation goes fashion with Balenciaga

After the hoodie with built-in music, chip bag-shaped bags, and the hybrid pants combining cargo shorts and jeans, Balenciaga has struck again, returning today with a new idea that is just as quirky but this time particularly interesting and progressive: a fermented fabric jacket. At first glance, it looks like a very ordinary leather jacket in Matrix style, but it is actually made from a bio-sourced fabric specifically designed for the House. The fabric, created by the San Franciscan company Gozen, is called LUNAFORM and took no less than 2 years to develop and present to the public. The wait was evidently worth it, as the result is not only surprising but also aesthetically interesting. The fabric uses no animal by-products, thus reducing the carbon footprint of both the brand and its wearer. Indeed, the fabric is a biomaterial made from microorganisms which, after the fermentation process, gives a crumpled effect known to be appreciated by the House's creative director Demna. A small step for Balenciaga, a big fan of textile experimentation since its early days (with, for example, the Gazar, a fabric designed by Cristobal Balenciaga himself), a giant leap for sustainable fashion. Yet, Balenciaga is neither the first nor the last house to offer a piece combining fashion, science, and sustainability.

Indeed, her counterpart Stella McCartney has built an unshakeable reputation primarily for the original and ecologically interesting materials she uses in her creations, thus gaining the status of a totally cruelty-free brand and the right to proudly showcase impressive results in carbon footprint reduction. She was actually the first brand to offer a sustainable jacket, thanks to close collaboration with the biological recycling company Protein Evolution: the world's first garment made from biological recycling. Regarding leather goods, the brand is not lagging behind and has been offering vegan bag collections for years, made from lab-grown vegan mushroom leather, resembling real leather. There's even no need to mention the Falabella bag, also entirely made of vegan leather, the go-to bag for fashion-savvy high school students for decades.

Still in the realm of bags, Hermès has also decided to dive into the world of sustainability, by releasing a 100% ethical and sustainable version of the iconic Victoria bag, made from a leather alternative, also created from mushrooms. At Gucci, thanks to singer Billie Eilish, there is a completely vegan version of the Horsebit 1995, made from Demetra, a vegan leather alternative. This material, composed of 75% plant-based content including viscose, wood pulp, and non-GMO corn-based plastic from responsible sources, was actually developed in-house by Gucci, which constantly seeks new ways to increase the percentage of bio-sourced inputs without compromising product durability. An objective that appealed to the singer, who was very clear from the start: no collaboration if the collection did not include exclusively vegan pieces. This gentle blackmail paid off as success came quickly, achieving phenomenal success. Louis Vuitton, with its LV Pillow, first offered in 2021 pieces made from 90% environmentally friendly materials, inspired by Nicolas Ghesquière's Pillow Boots. This time, the recyclable material ECONYL, made from recycled nylon fibers, was chosen by the House as a substitute for less eco-friendly materials.

However, all this mainly concerns leather goods and bags, and there is still much progress to be made in clothing, with Balenciaga remaining among the few brands to offer a larger garment requiring a more significant amount of vegan leather. Although there is still a significant margin for improvement, research and innovations are increasingly frequent. The luxury group Kering, for example, in collaboration with the industrial company Spiber, launched last February "Biosphere Circulation", a project aimed at transforming unused clothing and textiles into nutrients for microbial fermentation and the production of new protein materials. Simply put: clothes are turned into sugar, to produce new threads, which are then reused to make other pieces. It turns out that sugar can be good after all. Yeast is also a key ingredient in vegan fabric production, producing not only an impressive aesthetic result but also surprisingly durable materials. Balenciaga could well lead the way and gently inspire its peers to follow the trend of sustainable faux leather. Hopefully, the future holds for the fashion world, still far from being even slightly eco-friendly, progress and innovations always aligned with ecological challenges, while remaining fashionable and aesthetically captivating.