Nicholas Kirkwood

Conscious Design

Materials & Components

We challenge and push design and product development boundaries to make luxurious products in a way that is fit for the world we live in today and tomorrow, both beautiful and sustainable. No compromises.

Innovative Materials

Nature-L ® Leather

This Nature-L ® leather been designed to degrade by 75% in the first 90 days of composting, compared to standard leather which degrades by only 7.8% in the same conditions. This leather uses less water than the traditional tanning process and reduces waste as cut-offs can be composted. It also reduces the amount of dye needed because of the improved colour intake. 100% of suede leather uppers and 100% of neutral and black linings are made of Nature-L ® leather.

Chrome-Free Leather

Chrome-free leather has been tanned without the use of heavy metals.This reduces impurities in waste waters created during the tanning process. The leather is produced in a closed cycle so water can be recycled, and overall water-consumption is reduced. 18% of leather uppers are made of chrome-free leather.

Leather Working Group

We are proud to be working with the Leather Working Group, an organisation that focuses on creating positive environmental impact within the industry and a resource for brands, manufacturers, suppliers, NGOs and final users. The LWG maintains a protocol that enforces the environmental compliance and performance of leather manufacturers and encourages sustainable and appropriate environmental business practices in the leather industry, with a goal of reducing waste and water usage, air, water and soil pollution, and emissions. 73% of our leather uppers come from LWG audited tanneries inclouding all the Nature-L ® leathers.

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Components

insoles
outsoles
Stiffeners & Toe Caps

Insole

The insoles are made from 100% FSC®️ certified cellulose fibres, so they are fully degradable in the first 3-6 months of composting. The insoles are designed to be particularly strong and resistant, therefore our high-heeled shoes no longer need a metal support shank. 100% of our collection uses these innovative insoles.

We're working on it

Metallic Leather

Metallics used in the collection are not compostable, however, we have significantly reduced the use of metallics in the collection compared to the past.

Pearls

We are still researching and testing natural alternatives. We used glass Swarovski crystal pearls for the Ocean Day Capsule collection.

Carry over products

Currently, 27% of uppers and 100% of linings are made of Nature-L ® leather, 67% of uppers are LWG certified leather and the rest 6% of uppers are made using GOTS certified silk

Rubber Soles

Some coloured soles on the Casati family still use a rubber sole, however all of our black rubber soles are now 71% plant-based. We are continuing tests to improve this and looking for fully natural alternatives.

Calfskin

We are currently experimenting with high quality compostable calf leather, which looks promising, and we hope to use it in future collections. Because of our design ethos we won't compromise on a material unless it is right, but we have moved towards using metal free calf in the meantime.

ABS heels

We are currently looking into compostable alternatives and conducting research on bio-based materials that have the same performance as ABS.