The word Malai brings to mind, the creamy part of milk. It is eaten with gusto and is considered a delicacy in some parts of the country. So what does the same word Malai have to do with vegan leather, you wonder. Why is it called so? The reason becomes apparent when you discover that it is actually a kind of malai like formation which forms the base of the vegan leather…yes and it is edible though not tried!!!
Innovations in textiles is the buzzword today. The thrust of all research to come out with eco friendly textiles which impact the environment little. The objective to recycle, reduce and reuse. There have been several interesting innovations, one that has garnered a lot of attention in the recent past is vegan leather made from coconut water with a very interesting brand name – Malai and the company called Malai Design and Material Pvt. Ltd. or Malai biomaterials. The winner of the Lakme Circular Design Challenge award. The product and the journey of the founders is interesting to say the least. The co-founders are Zuzana Gombosova (from Slovakia) and C S Susmith from India. Simplistically put, malai is literally grown on coconut water of mature coconuts and it is ready to be harvested in 14 days. It is then further processed to get the form of vegan leather which can be used instead of leather. Which means it can be used to make bags, wallets, suitcases, shoes…the sky is the limit with experimentation. The process of growing is of course the secret which has been perfected over time.
Zuzana Gombosova Co-founder interacting via email says, “Malai is a reference to the primary raw material we use for making the material - nata de coco. Nata de coco is a Philipino version of Bacterial Cellulose grown on coconut water and it literally means : cream of coconut. It also resembles the “malai” from tender coconut a lot in its appearance and texture.”
Despite the talk of eco friendly alternatives, funding for the venture proved elusive. As Zuzana says, “We are still pretty much at a seed funding stage. So far Malai has been largely self financed. In 2019 we ran a successful crowdfunding campaign where we raised over 18k Eur and at the beginning of this year we won the Circular Design Challenge award here in India that also came with a financial reward. Our capacity so far is quite small as we still concentrate on further r&d to improve some of the material properties. Before we make further progress in this area there is no point scaling up to high production capacities.”
The mode of working for the company at the moment is through collaborations with designers and of course their own line. Zuzana says, “We started as material manufacturers and developers. We work with designers, brands and manufacturers mainly from the fashion industry where our materials are used for making bags, accessories etc. Because of the crowdfunding campaign last year we also started with a small line of our own accessories. This year we got an opportunity to build on that as winners of CDC where we presented at the Lakme Fashion Week. I am a fashion designer by training so it’ been quite fun to get back to my roots and for a change design fashion accessories.”
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