The brand has worked with leather made from fungi and grape waste in the past.

Classic fashion label Ganni has launched a range of vegan leather bags and shoes made from orange and cacti waste.

The cult Scandi brand partnered with Italian company Ohoskin, which makes cruelty-free and innovative bio-based leather alternatives.

The decision follows the company’s promise to phase out virgin leather and other unsustainable materials from all products by 2023.

Ganni’s sustainability goals

Founder Nicolaj Reffstrup made the sustainability pledge in 2021 after realizing that leather was its single biggest polluter, despite only making up seven percent of its collections.

“For us, it’s just a matter of bringing down our carbon footprint,” Reffstrup told Vogue.

“You just need to look at the means you have to achieve that target, and phasing out leather is an obvious one.”

The brand has also committed to reducing absolute emissions by 50% by 2027.

Vegan leather

Rather than adopting carbon offsetting as a means to counterbalance their carbon emissions, Ganni has been working with leather alternatives.

Over the past two years, it has used Mylo, made from mycelium, or mushroom roots, and Vegea, created using grape waste in its collections.

The brand is now using Ohoskin , which is made using orange and cacti waste from the food and beauty industries, as well as recycled plastics.

The first product with this low impact material is the Bou bag, named after the Reffstrups’s daughter, Betty Lou. 

“The Ganni Bou bag embodies the notion of real-world luxury that defines the Ganni DNA,” the company said.

“An iconic bag made for all aspects of everyday life.”

Ohoskin

The fabric company was launched by textile designer Adriana Santanocito and chemist Roberto Merighi in 2019.

The plant-based coated textile is made with the byproducts of oranges as well as the cactus.

According to the company, the fabric offers “a new luxury,”  and is aimed at helping climate conscious people fulfill  their commitment to the planet by switching to more sustainable fashion alternatives.

Ethical fashion

Ganni joins a number of other apparel and fashion companies that have taken steps to ditch leather and other animal products from their designs since its common knowledge that animal leather is a by-product of the meat and dairy industries, which accounts for about 15% of total global emissions.

Balenciaga recently launched a mushroom leather jacket as part of its shift from animal leather.

In 2021, Fossil partnered with Desserto to launch a range of vegan leather bags made from cacti.

In the same year, luxury fashion house Hermès partnered with biomaterial company MycoWorks to launch a vegan leather bag made from mushrooms.

The Karl Lagerfeld label also embraced cactus leather for its first ever vegan bag in partnership with model and environmental activist Amber Valletta. The  brand created a cruelty-free version of its iconic K/Kushion bag featuring faux leather made by start-up Desserto.

• Read: Harvey Nichols finally bans fur

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Mohsina Dodhiya

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