A 67‑million‑year‑old claim to fame couldn’t find a buyer. The much‑publicised T. rex leather bag, a collaboration between scientists and fashion label Enfin Levé, made using genetic material traced to a dinosaur fossil discovered nearly 25 years ago in the United States, failed to sell at a Paris auction. Expected to fetch up to $500,000 (about Rs 5 crore), the black, diamond‑studded piece attracted interest but never reached its reserve: bidding stalled around $150,000, and the bag was ultimately withdrawn from the block at Hôtel Drouot.
Estimated to go as high as $500,000, bidding paddles went flying up at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris, France, but not for the T-rex leather bag. However, the bids hardly went up to $150,000, as per the South China Morning Post, the black diamond-studded bag fell out of the auction line-up.
How it’s made: T-rex leather
“In recent years, we’ve developed techniques – biotechnologies that allow us to instruct a cell culture to produce, so to speak, genuine T. rex skin in the laboratory,” said Iacopo Briano, a palaeontology expert associated with the sale, before the auction.
As per Briano, the T-rex leather is largely engineered and derived from cell culture. Explaining how it’s much different from ‘vegan’ leather, it comes from the DNA of an animal which was alive 67 million years ago.
Challenging the boundaries of creativity and science, the accessory became more than ancient; it became history as its first-ever and one-of-a-kind form of tyrannosaurus leather.
The biomaterial was created by creative agency VML in partnership with The Organoid Company and Lab-Grown Leather Ltd. Researchers began by analysing fossilised collagen fragments recovered from Tyrannosaurus rex remains discovered in the United States.
The reconstructed DNA was then subjected to phylogenetic analysis before being integrated into the genome of a specialised bio-leather cell line. This allowed the cells to generate skin tissue, which was later processed and sustainably tanned into leather. In effect, the scientists transformed genetic material from a long-extinct species into a tangible modern biomaterial—a breakthrough that feels remarkably close to bringing a piece of prehistory back to life.
Using these sequences as a foundation, they reconstructed the missing genetic data to create a complete collagen blueprint. The synthetic DNA was then introduced into the cells of an undisclosed host animal, enabling the production of collagen that was subsequently processed into a leather-like material.
What came before the T. rex leather?
Interestingly, the T-rex leather is not the only bioengineered textile to ever exist in the fashion world. Earlier this year, in January 2026, Balenciaga’s Spring 2026 Collection featured AMSilk’s bioengineered silk protein yarns.
The German biotech company, AMSilk, engineered the silk proteins using microbes and fermented them into yarns which mimic and surpass naturally existing silk performance. Balenciaga became one of the first couture houses to make this material commercially available.
Similarly, Hermes, the French haute-couture fashion house, has worked closely with biomaterials and launched a fine mycelium leather grown from fungal networks. It became a cruelty-free alternative to traditional methods like calfskin.
With sustainability as a growing trend in the fashion industry, a large set of brands and labels are adopting the cost. Lab-grown collagen leathers, along with the ones made from citrus waste, bacterial cellulose fabrics, and bio-designed textiles, are also positioned as sustainable luxury.