Here’s one more reason to love beer! Developed as a 100% environmentally-friendly, animal-friendly and chemically free alternative to leather, BM Leather takes one of the wasted by-products of beer-brewing and turns it into a fabric that mimics faux-leather, but will biodegrade (and even fertilize) when disposed. Designer Mi Zhou developed the material for Stella McCartney in a bid to make fashion much more sustainable, in a way that doesn’t create waste, but rather reduces it.

For every tonne of beer brewed, you’ve got a quarter of a tonne of beer mash, the residual grain/pulp, left behind from the brewing process. Converting this into a fabric, BM Leather uses a by-product in a way that upscales it into a fashion product. Produced in cooperation with Beavertown Brewery, Mi Zhou developed a leather-esque fabric out of the residual wet mash, which comprises mainly mashed grain, husk, sugars, and water. The vegan-friendly leather, developed keeping Stella McCartney’s brand ethos and commitment to animal and eco-friendly fashion, uses zero chemicals, is 100% natural, and can even be dyed in different colors, making it a great new material for fashion designers to toy with, and a lovely push for the fashion industry towards sustainability!

Designer: Mi Zhou for Stella McCartney