Wine Leather
A “Must”-Have for Eco-Conscious Collectors
Imagine the opportunity to own two uber-luxury products in one—a Louis Vuitton handbag made using leather dyed in Hennessy Cognac. What if the handbag used leather made of Hennessy Cognac? No longer a flight of fancy, “Wine Leather,” invented by Vegea, an Italian biomaterials company, is a fabric produced with the must (grape seeds and skins) leftover from wine production. The material is 100% vegan, sustainable, and can be recycled. The Vegea team debuted its prototypes made into dresses, handbags and shoes. It will soon be available for the furniture and auto industry—Bently announced it has chosen wine leather for the interiors of their new car model. Every year, 26 billion liters (7 billion gallons) of wine are produced worldwide, creating 6.5 billion kilos (14.3 billion pounds) of grape must. “We can potentially produce 2.6 billion square meters (28 billion sq ft) of VEGEA fabric every year,” he says. Unlike with animal-based leather, no toxic solvents or heavy metals are needed in the production process.