Iris van Herpen’s collection: Can this dress save the world?
Vogue: How did the collaboration with Iris van Herpen come about?
We sought her out as she is an outstanding couturier who, much like us, is inspired by nature and led by a philosophy of sustainability.
Vogue: What are you looking to get out of this alignment with high fashion?
I believe that biotechnology has the potential to diversify and strengthen the global supply chain, which is important to keep peace in the world. But that takes a long time. Take, for example, petrochemical fibres: it took over 100 years for them to be industrialised. But we don’t have much time left. Seeing all these environmental problems coming up and the global conflicts… So given that situation, we want as many companies as possible to use Spiber in a short time frame. And we believe that working with high fashion brands helps in that mission to penetrate the supply chain.
Vogue: How do you propose to strengthen the supply chain?
When we talk about strengthening and diversifying the global supply chain, we’re referring to Spiber’s broader vision of creating a sustainable, decentralised production ecosystem for Brewed Protein™ materials. This includes sourcing untapped biomass, such as bagasse [the fibrous residue left over after sugarcane stalks are crushed to extract their juice], agricultural waste and used bio-based textiles, from various regions around the world, and using that as feedstock to produce Brewed Protein™ polymers.
We estimate there are several billion tonnes of under-utilised biomass resources worldwide. By leveraging these efficiently — without needing to expand farmland or increase livestock production — we can scale Brewed Protein™ for use in textiles, food ingredients and more. Because protein is a high-value product with wide-ranging applications, and because microbial fermentation is highly efficient when optimised with our proprietary technology, we believe this approach can support the development of an entirely new sustainable industry.
In addition to our existing production and spinning operations in Thailand and Japan, we’re exploring the establishment of polymer production and spinning facilities outside of Japan. This will help shorten lead times, reduce reliance on any single location and make our materials more accessible globally.
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at [email protected].
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