At the edge of the world, Nous Étudions and Mexican biomaterials company Polybion unveiled a collection grown from life itself — its Celium material — merging couture and cultivated science in the wilds of Patagonia.
The Argentine label Nous Étudions brought fashion to the end of the world — literally. In Ushuaia, where Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego meets Antarctic winds, the brand debuted El fin del mundo, principio de todo (The End of the World, Beginning of Everything), a collection developed with Mexican biomaterials innovator Polybion. The collaboration speculates on material innovations through a combination of science, art, and nature.
Every piece in the line was made entirely from Polybion’s cultivated cellulose, Celium, in its Original, Translucent, and Espumante variants. For designer Romina Cardillo, the collection grew from an expedition to Antarctica that redefined her creative compass. She told Vogue México, that the connection with the biologists and nature happened there. “I felt I had connected with immensity, with something so perfect and yet so imperfect. Because there is nothing more imperfect than nature,” she said.
Celium, the biomaterial at the collection’s core, is cultivated from bacterial cellulose grown on fruit-industry waste, a process that transforms leftovers into flexible, fabric-like sheets. Its natural variations allow for differing thicknesses and densities, producing textile effects that mimic leather or organza without animal or petrochemical origins. The team used manual pleating and laser-cut techniques, which helped to highlight how a biomaterial could “move, fold, and breathe like fabric” while retaining its natural depth and integrity.
The show itself was a sensorial immersion: pleated silhouettes echoed the sway of underwater kelp forests, soft blush tones mirrored Tierra del Fuego’s glacial light, and sculptural volumes paid homage to local geology. The event took place inside Tierra del Fuego National Park, transforming Patagonia’s raw terrain into what Le Banana described as “the southernmost runway on Earth.”
From lab to closet
The partnership between Nous Étudions and Polybion goes beyond aesthetics — it’s a blueprint for how luxury fashion might evolve. Polybion’s production facility, FOAK I, generates about 1.1 million square feet of Celium annually. While that’s a fraction of the estimated 23 billion square feet of leather and pleather produced each year globally (Secrid), it marks an important proof of scale.
The company says its process uses roughly five percent of the water and ten percent of the energy required for conventional leather production, and that mango waste in Mexico alone could replace half of the world’s animal leather supply.
Earlier this year, Danish brand Ganni also collaborated with Polybion on a series of Celium prototypes presented at Paris Fashion Week, a move that Polybion described as “the new gold standard of forward-thinking design and materials.”
In Ushuaia, Nous Étudions expanded that vision into performance art. The presentation included vegan gastronomy, soundscapes inspired by ocean tides, and local collaborations with the Tierra del Fuego Tourism Institute.
Cardillo said she was drawn to Polybion’s ethos as much as its innovation. “I’m really in love with how they work and how they represent their own products,” she told Vogue Mexico. “I always look to work with companies that can expand, precisely to counteract those industries, suppliers, or companies that aren’t doing things the way they should.”
At the world’s southern edge, Nous Étudions proved that couture can grow from what lives — and in doing so, perhaps redefined where fashion begins. “Giving visibility to Polybion or other companies shows that sustainability can be implemented,” Cardillo said. “I wanted to show that sustainability isn’t an impossible path; it’s a path they want us to believe is impossible.”
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