Parent company of Gucci and Balenciaga joins Spiber’s biosphere textile recycling project

In Japan, Kering, the French multinational behind Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, and Alexander McQueen have joined a circular textile initiative launched by protein fermentation firm Spiber.

The biosphere circulation project aims to regenerate biobased and biodegradable textile and agricultural waste using Spiber’s technology. The product, called Brewed Protein, can be used as substitutes for cashmere, wool, fur, leather, silk, and other animal and/or petroleum-based materials.

EILEEN FISHER Inc., Johnstons of Elgin, and DyStar also joined the initiative. Johnstons of Elgin is a Scottish luxury cashmere and woolen mill. Eileen Fisher is an American fashion brand for women, and DyStar is a global provider of textile and specialty chemical products.

Spiber has completed lab scale proof of concept experiments in which sugars were successfully extracted from post-consumer waste textiles and were used as raw materials for fermentation to produce Brewed Protein fibers.

“To achieve a more circular textile industry, different multilevel approaches are necessary as well as validating and deploying different solutions. The biosphere circulation project is an ambitious and challenging initiative opening a new path to textile recycling. From being a last resort, recycling can become a new promising alternative for unusable textile materials,” Christian Tubito, Kering Material Innovation Lab Director, said in a press statement.