VML just created the world’s first T-Rex leather

Creative agency VML, genomic engineering firm The Organoid Company, and sustainable biotechnology company Lab-Grown Leather have brought to life lab-grown T-Rex leather engineered from reconstructed dinosaur collagen, and turned it into a one-of-a-kind luxury handbag.

Unveiled alongside a colossal T-Rex statue at the Art Zoo Museum in Amsterdam, the collector’s piece was exclusively designed by avant-garde techwear label Enfin Levé and is positioned as the first physical expression of the new material. After a six-week exhibition, the bag will be auctioned to the highest bidder, while T-Rex leather itself is being positioned as a scalable material for luxury brands.

To create the leather, the team began with fossilised T-Rex collagen sequences and used advanced computational biology and AI modelling to reconstruct the remaining genetic information needed for a complete collagen blueprint. The fully synthesised DNA was inserted into a carrier cell line and cultivated using Lab-Grown Leather’s proprietary advanced tissue engineering platform, resulting in a material that is structurally identical to conventional leather.

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The outcome, the companies said, is a durable, repairable, biodegradable and fully traceable leather – grown without animal slaughter, deforestation, or chromium-heavy tanning processes. Initial commercial applications will focus on luxury accessories, with longer-term ambitions in fashion, automotive and other high-performance material categories.

For the partners, the project is as much about brand positioning and category creation as it is about science, framing “dinosaur leather” as a provocative way to reimagine leather production and signal sustainable innovation to consumers.

Professor Che Connon of Lab-Grown Leather said the project underscores the flexibility of its platform. “Our proprietary advanced tissue engineering platform has once again proven its versatility. By collaborating with VML and The Organoid Company, we’re unlocking the potential to engineer leather from prehistoric species, starting with the formidable T-Rex. This venture showcases the power of cell-based technology to create materials that are both innovative and ethically sound,” he said.

Meanwhile, VML’s global chief creative officer, innovation and CCO EMEA, Bas Korsten, positioned the work as an attempt to shift perceptions of lab-grown leather in the luxury space.

“With T-Rex leather we’re harnessing the biology of the past to create the luxury materials of the future. The stark reality is that lab-grown leather hasn’t yet convinced the luxury world. Why? Because it feels like an imitation. We knew we had to do something radically different. Not a substitute, but something entirely new. So we went back 66 million years in time. The result is a material that doesn’t copy the past but reimagines it. Seeing it realised as a luxury object is a powerful milestone in shaping a new category of sustainable luxury,” he said.

The launch also taps into a wider shift in consumer expectations around luxury. Studies across key markets have shown affluent consumers increasingly expect premium brands to lead in sustainability, not just follow. In APAC for example, luxury consumers surveyed stated that they would reduce their support of brands that neglect environmental sustainability, according to a 2023 report by Delta Global.

The report, which surveyed over 2,000 luxury consumers across Hong Kong, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Mainland China, revealed that 92% of APAC luxury consumers would stop buying, buy less or reconsider buying from brands that do not care about sustainability and 27% said they would stop buying from these brands altogether.

Against that backdrop, projects such as T-Rex leather become a way for brands and agencies to demonstrate credibility in climate-conscious innovation, while still delivering the scarcity, craft and narrative drama that underpin luxury pricing power.

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VML just created the world’s first T-Rex leather

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