Fendi taps London academics for lab-grown fur 

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In London, luxury brand holder LVMH and its portfolio company Fendi are collaborating with Imperial College London and Central Saint Martins at the University of Arts London to create lab-grown fur fibers. The pact comes as high-end fashion looks to distance itself from the sustainability and cruelty concerns of traditional fur. 

“The ultimate goal at LVMH is to have these alternative innovative materials but not using plastics,” LMVH group environment development deputy director Alexandre Capelli tells Vogue Business. “Even if the quality of fake fur has improved in the last year, it’s still not at the level of natural fur. We think that with this innovation, we should be able to achieve this level of quality—very close to natural fur.”

The two-year research initiative will focus on keratin as a starting material and leverages the synthetic biology expertise of Imperial College London Professor Tom Ellis and biodesign know-how of Carole Collet, professor at Central Saint Martins.