Clothing company plans to revolutionize fashion industry with pioneering new materials: ‘On the cusp of a new era’

U.K.-based biomaterials company PACT has secured £9 million (about $11.7 million) in a seed round to advance the development of biomaterials inspired by nature, according to Tech EU. 

The company’s inaugural material, named “Oval,” is a scalable biomaterial crafted from natural collagen. Tech EU reported that some of the world’s leading luxury fashion houses are already partnering with PACT to incorporate the material into their lines.

In order to ramp up its production capabilities and invest in further biomaterial breakthroughs, the company is building a 13,820-square-foot headquarters in Cambridge, England, that includes a laboratory and pilot production facility.

“Our commitment at PACT is to craft beautiful, adaptable materials inspired by and derived from the natural world,” the company’s CEO, Yudí Ding, said, per Tech EU. “… By partnering with luxury maisons on these new foundational materials, we stand on the cusp of a new era of collaboration between science and elegance; one where sustainability is fused and suffused with beauty.” 

The use of biomaterials in fashion can help save a significant amount of water. This is good news, as billions of people around the world lack adequate access to clean water. For scale, it takes about 1,800 gallons of water to manufacture just one pair of jeans and 400 gallons to produce the cotton in a t-shirt. According to Tech EU, Oval uses significantly less water to make compared to other types of textiles. 

Plus, if Oval were substituted for just 1% of the current use of leather and synthetic-coated textiles, it would keep about 5.3 million tons of carbon pollution out of the air each year, the website states.

This carbon cutting is critical as we face an overheating planet with an increased risk of natural disasters like heat waves, droughts, hurricanes, wildfires, and floods that can threaten lives and decimate homes and crops.

Meanwhile, PACT isn’t the only company delving into the power of biomaterials. For instance, one Mexican company is making a leather-like material out of nopal cactus leaves. Plus, a Brooklyn-based startup is making faux leather out of shrimp shells. 

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