The Andam fashion competition’s innovation prize, introduced in 2017 and now in its seventh edition, has been awarded for 2024 to French start-up Alternative Innovation, which has developed a new leather alternative called Alterskin. Special mentions went to two other finalists: Autone, a London-based software-as-a-service platform specialised in stock optimisation solutions, and French start-up Synovance, which specialises in dyes bio-manufactured from natural materials.
 

Alternative Innovation will receive a €100,000 cash prize, and the three finalists will enjoy exclusive access to the members of the expert jury panel, and to the business eco-system of Andam, (France’s National Association for the Development of the Fashion Arts). The three companies “perfectly embody the aspiration to offer ecological alternatives and/or effective impact measurement tools at each level of the value chain, all the better for being based in France,” said Nathalie Dufour, managing director of Andam, which she founded in 1989.

“We are keen to support the ongoing transformation of the fashion design sector. Since we launched the innovation award, we have been receiving increasingly relevant applications, especially in the field of new materials – in terms of look, finishings and performance – which can truly help the industry, and whose production costs are becoming really interesting,” Dufour told FashionNetwork.com.

Alternative Innovation was founded in 2020 in the Champagne-Ardenne region, and is led by Pauline Weinmann. After studying business in Lyon, Weinmann moved to Paris, where she worked in retail, real estate and fashion. In 2017, she co-founded Poétique Paris, which has since closed, a brand of products made with leather-effect material of non-animal origin. But the leather alternatives available at the time, even if plant-based, were not really ecological, since they all contained synthetic materials derived from oil-sourced plastic.
 
Weinmann gradually became aware of the need to find a leather substitute that was entirely bio-sourced, recyclable and customisable. As she wrote on the company’s website, she “was soon confronted with the environmental and ethical issues linked to coated textiles as alternatives to leather, and decided to explore further. After patenting a bio-polymer-based process and meeting various industry experts, she set up Alternative Innovation to create a French-made alternative leather material,” and teamed up with Marine Vareille, a chemical engineer now in charge of technology and R&D.
 
The company’s patented technology gave birth to Alterskin, “a plant-based shape-memory bio-resin characterised by sustainability and technical features with high added value.” Alterskin is a bio-sourced material derived from biomass, chiefly agricultural waste, free from oil-sourced plastic and capable of regenerating endlessly. It can be used as sheathing, as a spray, as a coated fabric, and as a flexible bio-based material.
 
“The innovation prize is similar to our emerging designer award. Our role is to help start-ups, as well as companies that are ready to climb to the next level. We are looking for new projects that might be interesting for fashion, a sector that isn’t necessarily on these start-ups’ radar,” said Dufour.
 
“We receive applications from abroad, but we consider them if they have a connection with France, and not just a commercial one. We keep in touch with our winners, continuing to leverage synergies with our network of industry contacts,” she concluded.