Our Story
We grow leather from fruit.
Nova is an innovative materials lab making leather and textiles that are cultivated rather than extracted — including a durable, supple hide pressed from rescued fruit.
A lab born from a happy accident.
Nova exists to answer a stubborn question: does the material that wraps our lives really need to come from an animal or a barrel of petroleum? We believe it doesn't. The planet already grows an astonishing amount of usable matter — and throws most of it away.
Roughly a third of all food is wasted. Juice and cider producers alone discard mountains of peel, skin, and pomace every day. Nova takes that surplus and re-engineers it into fruit leather: a flexible, durable, genuinely beautiful hide that never involved a cow or a tannery full of chromium.
Alongside our fruit hides, we develop regenerative-fiber textiles and mineral-tanned leathers — a full palette of surfaces for makers who refuse to choose between craft and conscience.
“I never set out to build a leather company. I set out to prove that the things we throw away are worth more than we think. Nova is that proof — grown, not extracted.”
The Fruit Hide
How a mango becomes a material.
We collect surplus fruit peel and pomace, blend it with natural binders and plant fibers, then cast and cure it into continuous sheets. The result is a hide that bends, stitches, and patinas like traditional leather — while using up to 82% less water and no animal inputs.
- — Made from rescued mango, apple, and grape waste
- — Chrome-free, biodegradable at end of life
- — Tested for abrasion, flex, and colorfastness
From a kitchen counter to a materials lab.
A crate of bruised mangoes
Nova began in a shared kitchen in Brooklyn, where founder Dyandra Raye was testing natural dyes. A forgotten crate of overripe mangoes had dried into a tough, pliable sheet on the counter. It bent like leather. It held a stitch. The question wrote itself: what if hides could be grown from fruit?
The first fruit hide
After two years of failed batches, Nova produced its first square meter of durable fruit leather — pressed from mango, apple, and grape pomace rescued from juice producers. It passed abrasion and flex testing that rivaled chrome-tanned cowhide, using a fraction of the water.
From kitchen to lab
Nova opened its first pilot facility, pairing fruit-based hides with regenerative plant fibers and closed-loop dye baths. Designers and fashion houses began requesting samples faster than we could cut them.
A material for everyone
Today Nova is a full materials lab — engineering leathers and textiles that are grown, not extracted. Our surfaces appear in accessories, footwear, interiors, and couture across four continents.
What we stand for.
Grown, not extracted
Every Nova hide starts as agricultural surplus — fruit peels, pulp, and pomace that would otherwise rot. We turn waste streams into premium material.
Beauty is non-negotiable
Sustainability only matters if people actually want the thing. Nova materials are engineered to feel, drape, and age as beautifully as the best animal leather.
Radical transparency
We publish the inputs, water use, and carbon balance of every material. No greenwashing, no hidden supply chains.
Want to build with a material grown from fruit?
Request a sample pack and feel the difference for yourself, or talk to our team about a custom material for your next collection.