This article looks at Pashma, a Pakistani fashion label, and its development of a vegan leather made from discarded cigarette filters, outlining the material process, the scale of production, and how the brand uses waste as both material and design statement to rethink what luxury fashion can be.
The conversation around what constitutes luxury material in fashion has been shifting rapidly over the past decade. Historically, exclusivity in design was often tied to animal-derived hides — rare furs, exotic skins and traditionally tanned leather carried cultural cachet precisely because they were expensive, labour-intensive and tied to long-standing craft traditions. Over the past 20 years, however, rising awareness of environmental impact, animal welfare and the carbon footprint of conventional materials has created a parallel movement: designers and material scientists seeking alternatives to animal leather that are both sustainable and commercially viable.
This broader trend has given rise to a diverse ecosystem of ‘alternative leathers’ — materials that replicate some of the aesthetic or functional qualities of animal hides without relying on livestock. Plant-based leathers made from pineapple leaf fibres, known commercially as Piñatex, emerged in the mid-2010s as one of the most visible examples. Piñatex repurposes agricultural by-products into a textile that can be cut and sewn like traditional leather. Other fruit leathers have followed, from apple and grape waste leathers to cactus-derived materials that have found homes in both fashion and automotive interiors.
Simultaneously, biofabrication, the use of biological systems to grow biodegradable, carbon-neutral alternatives have been attracting interest from luxury houses and material startups alike. This includes materials grown or engineered from microbial cultures, plant fibres and agricultural by-products, as well as hybrid processes that combine biology with controlled manufacturing, like leather substitutes derived from fungal mycelium. Together, these approaches point to a shift in fashion towards materials that are designed at a cellular or molecular level, allowing greater control over performance, waste and lifecycle, while opening up new aesthetic and functional possibilities for design.
It is within this widened landscape that Pashma — an upcoming Pakistani material-driven fashion house — has carved a niche by rethinking waste entirely. For its first collection, Pashma has transformed discarded cigarette filters into a bio-based, vegan leather designed to be odourless, non-toxic and safe for prolonged skin contact. Each filter used in the process is laboratory tested and developed in line with REACH compliance standards. The work is deliberately resource-intensive: it takes between two and three hundred cigarette filters to make a single product, resulting in limited and exclusive runs. The finished surface does not conceal its origins, foregrounding urban litter as both the material and message.
Pashma’s material practice operates at the intersection of fashion, material research and environmental provocation, forcing a reckoning with urban consumption habits and the afterlife of everyday pollutants. In doing so, it points to a broader redefinition of luxury: away from exclusivity rooted in rarity and towards exclusivity rooted in intention, sustainability and mindful materiality. This shift is visible across the industry — from plant-based leathers recycled from food waste to mycelium grown in labs — and reflects a growing cultural demand for alternatives that are both responsible and resonant with contemporary values.
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