We upcycle grape marc from our local, organic and bio-dynamic, vineyards, in the South of France, into beautiful, circular, bio-materials for, you, in the fashion and the lifestyle industries.
We want to revolutionise, with you, the fashion industry through the creation and usage of our new and innovative high performance grape based bio-materials that are made from the grape waste of our local organic, natural and biodynamic vineyards in the South of France.
Our raw materials originate directly from a country where wine making is an art form as well as a national obsession and now we’re incorporating them into another of France’s obsessions, Fashion and Lifestyle.
We’re creating grape based bio-materials that don’t use any toxic or carcinogenic chemicals that are detrimental to Mother Earth, nor to the health of those working with them. We’re also eliminating the use of any animals by creating plant based alternatives.
Our key raw material comes from lovingly tendered and farmed organic, natural and biodynamic vineyards where the vines have often been for decades and the vineyards passed on proudly from one generation to another.
We can happily share with you the history and the stories behind the vineyards from where your grape based materials are coming from. We can even take you there for you to see for yourselves, with absolute pleasure!
We’re challenging conventional wisdom by introducing our innovative, circular grape marc based materials into the fashion and lifestyle supply chains. Diversifying and evolving the current materials offering creates newness and freshness for Designers and Brands, like you, to work with especially for those of you that care about how the materials were made, where they were made and what is the end of life for them.
We’re aiming to reduce the current amount of environmentally and socially damaging animal leathers produced, render exotic skins obsolete and replace pvc and fully petroleum based coatings with our up to 80% bio-based ones. Come and join us in doing this.
We’re challenging conventional wisdom by introducing our innovative, circular grape marc based materials into the fashion and lifestyle supply chains.
We’re aiming to reduce the current amount of environmentally and socially damaging animal leathers produced, render exotic skins obsolete and replace pvc and fully petroleum based coatings with our up to 80% bio-based ones.
We collect the grape waste direct from the presses of the winemakers and then we transform and upcycle it into a new raw materials for the fashion and lifestyle industries.
We air dry the grapeskins and seeds in the Provençal sunshine and if there is no sunshine we dry them in machines that were designed to dry tomatoes! Cross-industry collaboration is what we’re about.
We upcycle the grape marc, with our plant based formulation, into bio-based coatings, leather alternatives and new durable materials with their own characteristics and unique textures.
The bio-based coatings, leather alternatives and new materials can be made especially for you, with your colours and textures and in small quantities or you can work with our standardised textures and colours.
Eventually the bio-based materials will be industrially compostable but for now they are designed for longevity, so that they can be rented or resold as individual loved pieces.
We're collaborating with the future material scientists and chemists from the world exclusive leather engineering degree program at ITECH School of Engineering in Lyon, France.
ITECH'S reputation in the leather world is confirmed through their ongoing collaborations with the top French Luxury Houses.
We’re simultaneously trialling out our grape marc with the most sustainable coating technologies today to ensure that we can scale up our innovations.
We’ve moved on from handmade prototype A4 sized samples to 45cm wide x 12m or longer roll to roll grape based materials.
Meet Samantha Mureau, a once upon a time fashion buyer & trend forecaster for international Blue Chip Fashion retailers, who is on a mission to clean up the disastrous fashion industry, with an incredible collective of people who kick butt and make change happen.
At the raw materials end of our eco-collective and seeking change for the grape waste of 35 vineyards is L’Association of Vignerons of Saint Victoire, led by future focused & vineyard expert Jean-Jacques Balikian.
On the Science side, Green Chemist Advocate, Steve Block, is mentoring & guiding Samantha.
Agnès Thomasset and her team of future material scientists are driving the R&D of the grape leather alternative at ITECH
Jane Shepherdson, CBE, Sustainable Fashion Industry Expert & Director of London Fashion Fund is advisory to Samantha and Planet of the Grapes.
French Public Bank, BPI and French Tech have provided finance and recognition for our innovative start-up.
We have been selected, twice, to showcase on the Bio-Materials Innovation table at London’s directional Future Fabrics trade show in 2023 and 2024.
The Metropole of Aix-Marseille-Provence has approved our innovation and new technology and they're supporting us on our journey.
Planet of the Grapes was 1 of the 28 Circular start-ups selected from across Europe by EU funded Fashion Revolution's Small But Perfect Accelerator program, led by Orsola Castro.
We have been awarded finance and guidance by Marseille’s Circular Initiative Up2Circ and the EU
We have been awarded finance and mentoring by Worth Project and EU finance
Stay in the loop with our curated content that’s sure to keep you up to date on everything that’s going on in our world of grape material innovation and more…
See our first grape and bio-based material designed and made into a Luxury handbag – Odette!
Made in collaboration with @underhereyes_fashion who designed a stunning handbag that was handcrafted from our bespoke surface texture and purple and pink colour ways to remind us of their grape beginnings.
The collaborative project debuted in the Fashion Revolution Open Studios, London, during the 10th Fashion Revolution Week which marked the Anniversary of the tragic Rana Plaza collapse of 2013.
Enjoy the video and peek into the behind the scenes of where the founder, Samantha Mureau, collected the grape marc in Aix en Provence, France, from, through to the creation of our bio-based material, in nearby Italy and the handcrafting of Silva Hbrar-Owens’s “Odette”, in the UK.
Do you want to be the first and lead the creative way in the fashion and lifestyle industries by designing and working with with our new grape leather alternatives or our grape based bio-coatings?
Contact us and let’s collaborate!
Join us on our journey to create circular designed materials by working with us and/or investing in us.
“It is working with those outside of fashion and lifestyle that will help us move the industries into a cleaner and more socially and environmentally respectful era. From collaborating with winemakers, material scientists and coating experts, then together, with the forward thinking and hands on Designers and Retailers, can we make the significant innovative and technological advances needed. If we don’t try, nothing is going to change.” Founder of Planet of the Grapes, Samantha Mureau
