Scientists have developed what’s being billed as a ‘T-Rex’ leather handbag — and it’s about to go on sale for a staggering amount of money.
Tyrannosaurus rex roamed the planet around 65 million years ago, until the mass extinction event that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs.
Of course, if you include birds in the dinosaur family tree, then dinosaurs never truly disappeared — they’re still here today.
T. rex remains the most iconic of dinosaurs, even though many researchers now think it likely had feathers, rather than the reptilian look popularised by Jurassic Park.
Now, in a development that sounds like it belongs in a Hollywood script, a team has created what they call “T-Rex leather”.
That might sound impossible at first. After all, T. rex only exists in fossil form, and even exceptionally preserved dinosaur skin fossils aren’t something you can turn into leather.
But this isn’t a case of bringing a dinosaur back to life and harvesting its hide — the material is made without resurrecting anything.
Instead, the lab-grown “leather” is produced using protein sequences that palaeontologists have reconstructed and linked to T. rex.
The handbag itself was made by Polish techwear label Enfin Levé and is set to be exhibited at the Art Zoo Museum in Amsterdam.
The announcement involved Bas Korsten, global chief creative officer at VML, alongside bio-technology firms The Organoid Company and Lab-Grown Leather Ltd.
Korsten has said the goal is to reframe lab-produced leather as something genuinely premium — not merely a substitute for traditional animal leather.
In a statement to USA Today, Korsten said: “At the moment, lab-grown leather often struggles in the luxury space because it’s seen as an imitation – something trying to replicate traditional leather, but never quite achieving the same sense of exclusivity. With T-Rex leather, the intention is to shift that perception entirely.
“By positioning T-Rex leather as ultra-luxury, we’re showing that ethical, lab-grown materials can be just as desirable – if not more so – than traditional leather.
“If we can change how people think about these materials, we truly believe that broader adoption will follow.”
After the museum exhibition ends, the bag will be put up for auction — and the opening bid underscores just how exclusive the creators want it to be.
The starting price is set at $663,000.
Supporters of the concept also point out that this kind of synthetic leather avoids tanning, a conventional step in leather production that can carry significant environmental costs.
Che Connon, CEO of Lab-Grown Leather, said in a statement: “This venture showcases the power of cell-based technology to create materials that are both innovative and ethically sound.”