PETA Global 2018 Issue 1

Images courtesy of Vegea ® Wine Not? Vegan Leather Made From Grapes! By Gianpiero Tessitore

V egea was inspired by my strong personal commitment to animal welfare and environmental protection. I’ve been vegan for a long time, and as an architect and designer, I felt that I had to invest in research and development in order to find a vegetal alternative to animal and synthetic leather. Consumers are becoming more and more ethically conscious, and the demand for animal-friendly and sustainable products is growing very quickly. I wanted to address this need arising from a shift in public opinion toward compassionate awareness. So my Vegea cofounders – Francesco Merlino and Valentina Longobardo – and I decided to invent an animal-free material that people would love. In creating Vegea, our ambitious goal was to make sustainable vegan leather from a plant byproduct so that nothing at any point in the process would go to waste. We succeeded!

C H A N G I N G Y O U R C L O T H E S • C H A N G I N G Y O U R C L O T H E S •

I This elegant “leather” dress and clutch are made from grape skins, not cow skins.

on store shelves all around the world, what’s left is 7 billion kilograms (more than 15 billion pounds) of grape “marc” – the skins, stalks, seeds, and other solid remains. Hello, Vegea! Grape marc is 100% vegetal raw material, and after careful investigation, we discovered that it creates the most eco-sustainable fabric: It’s surprisingly strong, and when processed and woven, it mimics animal leather. So this wine byproduct that is usually discarded as useless waste now has a use. If all grape marc were used to create eco-friendly, cruelty free fabric, Vegea could make 3 billion square meters (more than 3.5 billion square yards) of product per year. Just think of all the animals that would save! From cork to apple to pineapple, vegan leather options are gaining speed faster than anyone can believe and revolutionizing the fashion and furniture industries – and even the auto industry, with vegan leather consoles and seats. At Vegea, we envision a world of wine leather, in which animals won’t be slaughtered for their skin but instead will be able to live and graze beside the vines growing the very grapes that we’ll transform into humane bags, shoes, and garments. Consumers have spoken, and the future of fashion will be animal-free. So grab a glass of wine and say “cheers” to eco-friendly, cruelty-free vegan leather.

Here’s a pretty amazing fact: Italy produces 18% of the world’s wine, yet after it’s processed, bottled, and placed

Gianpiero Tessitore is an architect and cofounder and CEO of Vegea, an Italian manufacturer of environmentally friendly, sustainable, all-vegan leather made from byproducts of winemaking.

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