Modern Meadow will debut factory-made leather at New York's MoMA

By

Emily Jensen

Published
Aug 25, 2017

The American company is experimenting with leather developed entirely in a factory and plans to debut its product at a fashion show at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art.

 
The company was founded in 2011 and plans to develop the world’s first biofabricated leather. Modern Meadows uses a strain of yeast which produces a protein that mimics bovine collagen. The company’s bioengineers are able to manipulate the proteins into creating fibers, which then form layers to create leather.
 
Modern Meadow’s product is able to be tanned or treated the same as traditional leather would be, although the company wishes to create a new name and identity for its material. The company, which recently relocated from Brooklyn to New Jersey, will debut the name of the new material at a fashion presentation on October 1 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

For now, Modern Meadows is producing a product similar to cowhide leather, but in the future could manipulate the material to mimic leathers made from ostrich or alligator skin. Modern Meadows claims that if produced in large enough quantities, its material could cost about the same as traditional leather. The factory-made leather would also be more consistent in quality and regularity than leather derived from animals.