The impossible material created in a laboratory: this is how they managed to make a bag with T-Rex skin

Creative agency VML, in collaboration with Dutch genetics company The Organoid Company and sustainable biotechnology company Lab-Grown Leather Ltd, has created a handbag using dinosaur skin .

This sustainable bag uses lab-grown leather grown from fossilized T-Rex remains . And thanks to a genetic technology called Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR), scientists can cut and paste the dinosaur's genes to create this accessory.

However, the main purpose of this creation is to promote a new luxury fashion to challenge traditional leather , with T-Rex DNA providing an innovative and high-quality alternative. Furthermore, according to the New York Post , "ancient biology may create a next-generation material that will ultimately influence the future of luxury goods."

This is how the T-Rex skin bag was made

Lab-grown fossilized T-Rex collagen is used as a model to create a material structurally identical to traditional leather. This innovation is also biodegradable, innovative, and ethically responsible.

Their creation process involves using synthetic DNA to engineer cells that are then integrated into a product pipeline called 'Elemental-X', using an approach that allows the cells to fuse with their own natural structure . And by reconstructing and optimizing 'ancient protein' sequences, the T-Rex's 'leather' can be engineered—although, in truth, it's a biomaterial inspired by prehistoric biology.

According to VML, T-Rex leather is a high-performance material developed from cells that provides natural durability and repair capabilities.

Future uses

Its initial implementation will focus on accessories, with the goal of producing a luxury fashion item by the end of this year. However, over time, if handbag manufacturing increases, the material could open the door to possibilities beyond the fashion industry, such as the automotive sector , according to the New York Post.

Bas Korsten, global creative director of innovation and commercial director for EMEA at VML, said in a statement that "with T-Rex leather, we're harnessing the biology of the past to create the luxury materials of the future." While Che Connon, professor of tissue engineering at Newcastle University, said, "We're proving that we can create new materials never before seen."

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