Chinese designer Meng Du has created a bag collection called UNWASTED that is made from grape skin-derived leather.
The design of the collection is said to be inspired by junk. More specifically, a squashed plastic milk carton that Du had found littered on the street.
“I found that when recycling these used plastic milk cartons, or beverage cans, they are almost always squashed and have a dent in them,” says the designer. “I thought this shape was really interesting, so when I made the bags I deliberately designed them to look as if they were squashed and had a dent. To me, when altering a perfect shape into irregularity, it becomes interesting and unique.”
“Just because something isn’t new or perfect, it doesn’t lose its value as some of our society seem to think. On the contrary its value is rather increased with a previous existence.”
The grape skin used to create the leather was sourced from Oddbird, a wine company. According to Oddbird, roughly 290 million hectoliters of wine are produced globally every year, resulting in large quantities of a byproduct called grape marc being wasted.
With the help of Planet of the Grapes, the grape marc was transformed into leather.
“Once the grapes have been pressed to make the wine, the grape skins are essentially waste,” explains Sam Mureau of Planet of the Grapes. “The grape marc is collected and dried out under the beautiful Provencal sunlight. Once dry it’s ground into a powder. The powder is blended with some purely natural ingredients and turned into a liquid, which is then poured onto a fabric of natural stem fibres. Once the material is left to dry, the leather is ready to use and the lost grapes are reborn.”
All images in this article are courtesy of Meng Du and Oddbird.
