Parley x Biofabricate
growing the materials of tomorrow
What if we could grow materials rather than manufacture them? What if packaging nourished rather than polluted the Earth? What if fashion evolved with the seasons, rather than surrendered to transient trends? Envisioning “our material world, built with biology,” Biofabricate is driving sustainable biomaterial innovation for all sectors through a global network of startups, brands, and investors.
Biofabrication, once a medical term, is a new design paradigm centered on cultivating materials from living organisms like bacteria, yeast, fungi, algae and mammalian cells. In 2014, designer Suzanne Lee founded Biofabricate, a first-of-its-kind summit dedicated to growing the industrial and consumer products of the future. The annual summit provides a platform and home that helps ensure world-changing innovations in biotechnology are brought to scale, and seen. Today, the organization helps designers, innovators, brands and investors navigate the fast-emerging world of “bio-” materials through consultancy, design and education.
Sharing this vision for a new material world, Parley and Biofabricate have partnered since 2017 to support the annual summit and accelerate the Material Revolution.
Biofabricate 2024, Paris — For the first time in its 10-year history, Biofabricate brought the global bio-innovation community to Paris with a three-day summit at Fondation Fiminco, Romainville. From January 10 – 12, innovators, brands and investors showcased and witnessed groundbreaking developments with the power to drive society away from petrochemicals and back to nature. Parley crew and collaborators were on site to exhibit in the Design Lab, displaying Ocean Plastic® materials and collaborations including adidas, Amex, Clean Waves, Dior and Bananatex®. On the speaker stage, Parley Founder Cyrill Gutsch candidly presented our Parley AIR Strategy and introduced the next phase of Parley programs: Parley Future Materials, Ocean Defense and an investment arm launched to supercharge the global pivot away from plastics.
Photos by Robert Leslie
Biofabricate 2022, Brooklyn — Parley and Biofabricate returned to New Lab in Brooklyn for a two-day, in-person summit held June 6-7, bringing together innovators, brands and investors from across the creative industries and the fast-changing landscape of biotech. With thoughtful panels, inspiring speakers and another exciting Design Lab showcase, the event was a deep dive deep into the next wave of bio-innovators and learnings from veteran visionaries in the field. Summing up the spirit of the event, Suzanne remarked in her address, “We’re all here because we’re united in the same belief that we can build our world differently. And we will.
SeeChange Sessions 2021 — During the May 2021 SeeChange Sessions presented by Hula and Parley, Suzanne and Cyrill discussed the urgency of developing new materials to solve the climate crisis.
Biofabricate 2019, London — To kick off the first Soho, London, summit, Biofabricate founder Suzanne Lee and Parley founder Cyrill Gutsch highlighted the urgency of developing new material alternatives to plastic, underlining a deadline of 2030 as the point-of-no-return for our oceans. We need a material revolution now, and the Biofabrication movement that Suzanne has inspired lies at the very core of the strategy needed.
Biofabricate 2018, Brooklyn — Held at New Lab in Brooklyn on December 13th, 2018. Working across fashion, furniture, packaging, consumer goods and more, companies in the Biofabricate network are developing products using biotechnology. From biodegradable threads stronger than steel to packaging that nourishes the soil instead of polluting the oceans – innovations are emerging into the real world and beginning to scale up.
Biofabricate 2017, Brooklyn — Exhibitors and innovations at the 2017 Biofabricate summit included: BOLT spider silk; Mango Materials, plastic alternatives and textiles made using microbes; Modern Meadow, introducing ZOA, the Biofabricated leather; Natsai Chieza, textiles dyed by bacterial pigments & screen prints produced in the petri dish; Officina Corpuscoli, Mycelium based materials for product design; OurOwnsKIN & Officina Corpuscoli, mycelium based materials for product design and space exploration; Biot LAB, a range of architectural prototypes that encourage growth; Living Ink, sustainable ink grown using algae; Ecovative, sustainable textiles grown from mycelium; Jessica Gregory, calcium carbonate 3D printed scaffold for coral repopulation; 10X Beta, footprintless sneaker capturing CO2 emissions; Omenetto Lab, innovative new materials made from nature's ancient material: silk; Parley Ocean Plastic, created from upcycled plastic waste intercepted from marine environment and coastal communities.
Photos by: Ben Lozovsky, Meg Wachter, Charlie Ruben
Report: Understanding Biomaterials — A 2020 report co-authored by Biofabricate and Fashion for Good provides the first comprehensive review of biomaterial technologies for the fashion industry.
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