Leather made from flowers

“Flaux” is a new leather-like, textile material that uses waste from commercially produced flowers as its main ingredient and dye. When Irene Purasachit was a design student at Aalto University in Finland, she began to reflect on the aftermath of wedding ceremonies in her home country of Thailand, where flowers ended up in trash piles after the ceremonies. She subsequently attended a biomaterial course where she developed a method for drying, grinding and mixing petals into pulp. In the next step, the pulp was pressed into a material resembling leather which can be used to replace animal leather in garments and accessories.

The project was part of Aalto University’s “The Wardrobe of the Future” exhibition, which was organized to support the reimagining of fashion for a sustainable future. 
Photo: Aalto University