Non-Leather Fashion from Tea

Fashion designer Suzanne Lee began BioCouture with the vision to find a new alternative to leather. But rather than turning to plastic as the primary material, Lee and a team of scientists are looking to green tea—a vat of green tea that grows textile biomaterial, making clothing basically from bacteria. The result is clothing that has the look and feel of leather, but is 100 percent vegan. The green-tea leather takes two to four weeks to grow, and from it Lee designs jackets, dresses, and more. The product is not out yet for commercial sale, but the BioRuff jacket is on display at London’s Science Museum.