Jen Keane & Ben Reeve: Modern Synthesis

You keep hearing about recycled fabrics and better cotton, but what if materials themselves are being redesigned from scratch? London-based Modern Synthesis is part of that now, working on something that most of fashion still avoids. What if fabric did not need to be manufactured at all, and could instead be grown using biology?

This did not come from one perspective. Jen Keane, who worked at Adidas and Nike in material design, began exploring how materials influence fashion’s environmental impact during her Central Saint Martins MA project, where she experimented growing a shoe upper using bacterial nanocellulose. On the other hand, Dr. Ben Reeve, a bioengineer with a PhD and experience in building biological systems, was working at the molecular level to engineer new materials from living organisms.

One side brought design, product thinking, and industry constraints, while the other brought science and the ability to engineer materials from scratch. They came together to create an eco alternative and to challenge the limits of existing materials, showing that sustainability, performance, and design could be built together. Their work is a response to the growing plastic problem and a need to rethink how materials are created.

Modern Synthesis: Bringing Life to Materials

Instead of extracting fibers and processing them through chemicals, Modern Synthesis uses bacteria to produce nanocellulose, a natural material formed during fermentation, and then transforms it into textiles and coatings.

You are looking at a system where microbes act as manufacturing units, growing material structures that can later be shaped into leather like surfaces or flexible textile layers.

What makes this even more better is that it is designed to work with existing textile machinery, which means this is not just lab innovation, it is being built for actual industry adoption.

The Korvaa Shoe

This is not a regular shoe and it made its debut at the Future Fabrics 2025 expo. Korvaa is a sustainable shoe project that Modern Synthesis worked on along with other biotech companies to show what future footwear could look like. Instead of using plastics or synthetic leather, the shoe is built using bio-based materials like mycelium grown from living systems. Korvaa is more of a blueprint for next-generation sustainable footwear rather than a commercially available product right now.

(Image credit: Modern Synthesis Biodegradable Korvaa Shoes)

Most conversations in fashion are still stuck at the end of the lifecycle, talking about recycling or waste. But up to 80% of a product’s environmental impact is locked in at the material stage, long before a garment is even made.

Their materials are bio-based, free from petrochemicals, and designed to replace both animal leather and plastic-coated textiles, while still delivering performance and aesthetics that designers actually want, designing materials for compatibility with life.

If materials can be grown, biodegradable and scalable, then why does the current system still look inefficient? We are still asking how materials come into existence. And Modern Synthesis is right here fixing fashion's waste problem, breaking boundaries for the industry with the next generation of materials.