Sustainable materials are coming to the luxury industry
Increasingly innovative companies are embracing new customers' demand for more sustainability and are manufacturing with recycled gold, laboratory diamonds, and vegan leather.
BarcelonaLuxury evolves in many ways, such as in the choice of materials it uses. A testament to this phenomenon is the new Atelier Next collection by Silhouette, specializing in high-quality eyewear and sunglasses. For this new launch, the Austrian brand has chosen materials such as vegan leather and recycled gold. In this way, Silhouette sought to merge the creative and technological innovation that has characterized it since its inception with new trends in the luxury sector. With the incorporation of more conscious customers, it must ensure that its products are more environmentally friendly.
Based on this premise, the brand combines techniques such as 3D printing with the most modern materials in three subcollections, each with different sustainable materials. Responsible luxury is combined with avant-garde design, first and foremost with the Aura collection, which focuses on minimalist elegance and technical innovation with 23-karat gold details and 3D-printed elements. Second, the Radiance line fuses materials like vegan leather and 23-karat gold-plated titanium. Third, the Lumière line focuses on the finest craftsmanship, featuring lab-grown diamonds and 18-karat recycled gold.
According to the brand, the 23-karat recycled gold they use is made with "a special ruthenium alloy that provides a sophisticated yet lightweight finish," which improves the comfort of the wearer. The vegan leather, cruelty-free by definition, is presented as carbon-neutral, and they explain that it is "made from corn" and "made in Italy," which saves miles on raw material transportation. Lab-grown diamonds, on the other hand, "aim to reproduce the look of natural diamonds but without the obvious environmental impact that their extraction generates through mining." Finally, they also highlight their 3D titanium printing technology, which allows them to create "industrial-strength designs without generating waste," which was the case before implementing this technology.
Silhouette, founded in 1964 and having traveled to space thanks to having manufactured eyewear for 35 space missions, isn't the only luxury brand taking steps to embrace the concept of sustainability that its products have been around for years. The company, founded in 1948, also uses high-performance water treatment. In the tanning sector, the company works with the Leather Working Group to environmentally certify its employees, requiring them to use increasingly less chemicals.
One of its latest initiatives in support of sustainability has come with its annual collaboration with the French fashion awards ANDAM. Traditionally, the brand has given the finalists of these emerging talent awards free access to surplus leather and canvas stock from leather goods production to develop their collections, and in 2025 it has also added the offer of surplus stock from ready-to-wear. In addition, its classic Le Pliage bag has been available for years in recycled canvas, a pioneering move by the brand.
The incorporation of recycled materials is currently essential in fashion production, as this industry is one of the most polluting in the world. Therefore, at least in some of their lines, brands that want to position themselves as low-mass always incorporate recycled materials into their designs. One example is the Swedish frame brand Skaga, which has been using sustainable acetate for years for its glasses, which are mostly made of metal. For this reason, the company recently announced that it has also incorporated sustainability into metal, its main design element. The model chosen for this purpose is the Cirkulation, which is made with 91% post-consumer recycled steel, also reducing the impact of producing new models.
In this segment of non-luxury but non-mass brands that aim to align their designs with sustainability, Camper has stood out for years. Among the various initiatives the Balearic brand includes ReCrafted, which consists of converting used, returned, or defective shoes into new models. In its workshop in Mallorca, the brand's artisans take the shoes they receive and refurbish them with leftover materials from the main collections. This extends the shoes' life cycle, and those who donate the shoes are paid up to 30 euros for each pair they return.
One of its latest launches in this vein is the Roku model, which embraces sustainability from start to finish. The model, which revisits the brand's classic Wabi with a contemporary look, is based on a selection of recycled and repurposed ingredients and innovative technology. one-piece knit This reduces CO₂ emissions and contributes to Camper's zero-waste goal. The model doesn't use any glue and can also be easily detached, repaired, and recycled throughout its lifespan, creating a product with few limits from a sustainability perspective, as this means the product's lifespan is much longer and it's easier to repair and recycle when the time comes.