BioFluff Develops Faux Fur Made From Plants

Plant-Based Fur Alternative

BioFluff, a fashion-tech company based in Paris and New York, is producing an alternative to animal pelts and conventional faux fur: a fur-like material made from plants rather than plastics.

The effort grew out of a 2022 meeting involving Roni Gamzon, Martin Stübler and Steven Usdan. Gamzon, now 26, said she had long been drawn to faux fur, recalling a white coat with black spots that she loved as a child. At the time, she was building a fashion-tech start-up aimed at helping the luxury fashion industry engage with Gen Z, but she wanted to shift toward sustainability and saw textile innovation as an area where she could have the biggest impact.

Stübler, a bioengineer who had worked for MycoWorks, the company known for mushroom leather, and Usdan, a textile recycler and founder of Giotex in Mexico, had been developing an alternative to both animal fur and synthetic fur. Their work aligned with concerns surrounding fur on two fronts: animal welfare and the environmental costs of existing materials.

Why It Matters

Animal pelts have long been the subject of debate over animal welfare. At the same time, they are treated with a variety of chemicals. Traditional faux fur, meanwhile, is almost always made from polyester and acrylic, which are plastics.

BioFluff is positioning its plant-based material as a new option in that landscape, offering a fur substitute that avoids both animal pelts and the plastic fibers typically used in faux fur.