Luxury design’s animal fur problem finally has a worthy opponent
After conquering fashion runways in New York, London, and Paris, BioFluff’s 100% plant-based fur is now embedding itself in the furniture and interiors circuit, arriving at Milan Design Week 2026 through a cluster of presentations.
Every year at Milan Design Week, there are a few materials that keep popping up everywhere, from technological wallpapers to special steel finishings. This year, BioFluff’s Savian plant-based fur is making a credible bid to be that material. Founded in 2021 and incubated at La Maison des Startups, LVMH’s Paris innovation hub, the company set out to answer a relevant question: why was there no genuinely good alternative to fur? Not an ethical compromise, not a plastic substitute, but something that could hold its own while being free from cruelty, toxins, and microplastics.
Savian is a textile made from plant fibres, mainly flax, nettle, and hemp, sourced directly from European farmers and processed through an enzymatic treatment. The result has the volume and tactility of fur without the petroleum base of most faux alternatives. Savian’s carbon footprint sits at least 75% below plastic faux fur and 95% below animal fur. It is industrially compostable in 12 weeks, biodegradable in a landfill within a few years, and recyclable within textile-to-textile systems.
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Savian by BioFluff – Plant-based fur:
Savian’s material characteristics
What distinguishes the material is that the plant fibre is never spun into yarn; its natural structure is preserved and processed into a backing which gives it the almost sculptural quality that fur and shearling carry. The pile ranges from 0.2 cm in the short Cavallino to 8 cm in the full Fluff, with styles spanning from classic straight fur to curly shearling. Colouring is done with water-based dyes, with no chemicals entering the manufacturing process. The material initially expanded within the fashion realm, debuting with Stella McCartney in Pre-Fall 2024. Ganni followed with a version of its Bou bag, but the fur’s breakthrough came in AW26 through collaborations with Collina Strada, Martine Rose, Louis Vuitton and more.
In Milan Design Week 2026, BioFluff’s Savian appeared across four distinct presentations, each using it in a frame that expands the material’s frame of reference.
Alice Stool, Studio LoopLoop
At Alcova, Studio LoopLoop presents “Alice Stool“, a piece that uses Savian in combination with Hydro’s recycled aluminium extrusions. The product’s aim is to show that sustainability can be playful, joyful, and also seductive, imagining a future where circular design feels less serious than it does now.
Zeppelin, Mati Sipiora
Mati Sipiora‘s “Zeppelin” chair appeared within The Collector’s Room, a curatorial project by our editor Teo Sandigliano, an intimate exhibition context that framed individual pieces as objects of attention rather than fleeting discoveries. The chair uses Savian in Pony Dalmatian, a spotted, short-pile texture that reads between a fun animal-print provocation and childish charm.
Galápagos Chair, Hayvenhurst
At Masterly Milano 2026, Hayvenhurst presented its “Galápagos Chair“, upholstered in Savian’s Wolfy Rustic. The showcase was held at Palazzo Francesco Turati, and operated in the register of craft and premium production, making it a natural context for a material positioning itself as a luxury alternative rather than a sustainability compromise.
RedDuo Galleria, RedDuo Studio
Finally, RedDuo Studio brought Savian into its Porta Genova space, which was turned into a temporary gallery for design week, a sensory sequence of environments where materials, light, and objects were arranged as a narrative path. The material appears repeatedly throughout the space, alongside Bitossi ceramics, marble surfaces, Belgian rugs, and works curated by Edoardo Monti. This is only a continuation of their previous partnership; RedDuo was the first interiors partner to use Savian, with their “Layer after Layer” bench at Barcelona Design Week in 2024.
The through-line across these four presentations is that they’re not focused on selling Savian as a sustainability story. The material is positioned in each case within a broader aesthetic or conversation, where it is expected to hold its own on terms other than its environmental credentials. Animal fur’s persistence in luxury is not just about warmth or texture; it is about a certain language of richness, of exception, that plastic faux fur has failed to replace. BioFluff’s Savian could succeed in establishing that logic, as a material on its own terms.
