Can you finally feel guilt-free about buying an iconic piece of furniture that starts at $6,395? For the first time in 68 years, Herman Miller is offering its Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman with a plant-based upholstery option that looks and feels like leather but is primarily made from bamboo.
The plant-based fabric, called Banbū, was developed by von Holzhausen and first launched back in 2020 as a durable alternative to both leather derived from animals and vegan leathers made using plastic-based materials like polyurethane. Banbū is made by chopping up bamboo and extracting fibers that are spun into a yarn that can be woven into fabrics. Those fabrics are then treated with a plant-based topcoat sealant, according to von Holzhausen’s…