A biomaterial company which turns floral waste into charcoal-free incense products has now created a vegan alternative to leather. They have named the start up, Phool.co, where the company will be creating vegan leather using the leftover temple flowers.
Phool Co. Co-founder Ankit Agarwal describes the animal-free leather – as ‘fleather’ and believes that this move will be a game changer for the fashion industry as well as vegan lovers as it is a perfect substitute for leather. This cruelty free, sustainable enhancing product will definitely find takers not only in India but everywhere in the world.
If one looks at the 2020 Conscious Fashion Report one will receive data that says the internet searches for ‘vegan leather’ have increased by 69 percent. The searches for faux leather have remained the same but the search for vegan leather is now at 33,100 average.
Customers are looking for vegan alternatives and responding positively to products that read ‘vegan’ over ‘faux suggests the data. People are looking at buying eco vegan leather as they have realized the fact that all vegan options are not environmentally friendly.
Agarwal says that the company’s R&D team was intrigued by the leather-like white layer that formed on unused piles of flowers. So they researched more and found that there is growth of a micro-organism which uses flower petals as a nutritional source.
There is collagen in leather that provides strength and durability to it. Fleather instead has chitin which is a kind of protein that provides the same properties to the product. So the collagen and chitin are natural analogs. Thus, fleather is a perfect, cruelty free substitute for leather.
