By Charlotte Alt
As consumers increasingly demand more sustainable products, the fashion industry’s slow response has allowed smaller businesses to fill the void – one of them is Luxtra. Standing for Luxury Transformed, the brand is owned by 33-year-old Jessica Kruger and specialises in producing elegant and practical, vegan and cruelty-free handbags.
Luxtra is a PETA approved vegan company and, since 2020, is also a Certified B Corporation. Its handbags have been featured in publications like the Financial Times and The Guardian, and the young brand has received several awards recognising its commitment to sustainability. While Luxtra’s innovative approach to producing high-end cruelty-free fashion accessories is already making waves, Jessica, the down-to-earth and passionate mastermind behind the brand, is determined to push the limits of sustainability even further.
Becoming Vegan
“I just felt like it was my life’s calling.”
Jessica Kruger
Jessica spent her barefooted childhood in Sydney, Australia, before moving to Europe after finishing university to settle in Switzerland for a job. However, her mother’s decision to volunteer at an animal sanctuary farm in California in late 2012 unexpectedly changed Jessica’s career path.
Watching ‘Forks Over Knives’ to understand more about what her mother was doing prompted Jessica to become vegan: “It was really uncool at the time but I felt so strongly about it. I just felt like it was my life’s calling.”
Afterwards, Jessica quickly decided to quit her job and make the leap to create a meat-free restaurant in London in 2013.
The next several years were filled with developing new recipes, organising chefs and staff, and building a successful vegetarian establishment. “But already during that time, I was thinking: Wouldn’t it be great if I had a vegan product that could be shipped anywhere in the world?”, Jessica remembered.
After parting ways with her business partner in the summer of 2016, Jessica decided that that product was going to be handbags, and so Luxtra was born.
Committing to Sustainability
From the beginning, sustainability has been at the heart of the brand. Its mission is to “lead and inspire positive change in the fashion industry” by using “cruelty-free materials, methods of production and distribution to create long-lasting products”.
Luxtra’s sustainability promises are focused on using organic, recycled, or bio-based materials and ensuring supply chain transparency and fair working conditions.
The handbags, wallets, and rucksacks are made of the most innovative vegan leather on the market, created from pineapples, apples or cacti.
One of the materials, Piñatex, for example, is made in the Philippines from waste pineapple leaf fibre. It is a by-product of existing agriculture and natural, sustainably sourced, and thus cruelty-free.
Similarly, AppleSkin, a bio-based leather alternative made in Italy, is made with waste recovered from the fruit industry and Desserto is a material made from cacti grown in Mexico.
“I think that if I was really sustainable, I wouldn’t actually be making anything new.”
Jessica Kruger
Despite this commitment to sustainability, Jessica admitted that finding the balance between practicability and sustainability is difficult: “If I’m true to myself, I think that if I was really sustainable, I wouldn’t actually be making anything new.”
The materials are “not perfect” and the carbon footprint of shipping is undeniable. “It is something that I wrestle with a lot internally.” Nonetheless, the young entrepreneur believes in the importance of “giving people an option” to buy more sustainable products as a valuable step towards a more circular industry.
Building An Ethical Fashion Brand
To acquire the necessary know-how of building a sustainable fashion brand, Jessica attended courses at the British Library and found mentors online. She scoured LinkedIn for product developers to learn about the right materials, manufacturers, the process of product design, and digital advertising.
It required one and a half years of learning, planning, and creating for the first line of handbags to finally be released in 2018.
“The best part is the dreaming.”
Jessica Kruger
Looking back on the early years of developing Luxtra, Jessica is not shy about admitting that it was a tough process: “It’s been very up and down. Especially at the start, there were times when I just wanted to quit because it wasn’t working. It’s been a steep learning curve.”
However, she added optimistically: “But then again, Louis Vuitton has been around for more than one hundred years and I’m only at year four, so it’s okay. I’ll get successful down the track.”
Despite the challenges, the 33-year-old has already seen substantial success. Luxtra has steadily grown over the last four years, selling numerous products such as wallets, saddle-bags, jewellery boxes, and pouches.
Essentially a one-woman powerhouse, Jessica is in charge of everything from product development and liaising with manufacturers to organising photoshoots, sampling, and stock-taking.
“But the best part is the dreaming, when I come up with new products and create first sketches”, Jessica says.
The Fashion Industry and Sustainability
“Changing the system will take some years. I think it’s a really big ask.”
Jessica Kruger
Looking at the broader issue of creating a sustainable fashion industry, Jessica has a refreshingly realistic view. “I have some pity for big companies. Switching to sustainable methods and actually paying their staff will mean a significant reduction in profits and that’s not pleasant for anybody,” Jessica said.
“Obviously, they should have thought about this earlier. But changing the system will take some years. I think it’s a really big ask.”
It is, nonetheless, a necessary shift and, despite the rife problem of green-washing, some positive changes are already tangible.
Brands are beginning to move away from using fur and some bigger companies have become Certified B Corporations. “Hopefully our generation, once we get into positions of power, will make things a little better”, Jessica said.
She added that the current interest to invest in sustainable solutions is promising: “Where there is money, I think interesting things can happen.”
Until then, Jessica is determined to grow her own business: “My main goal for this year is profitability”. She added that she is also planning to explore new vegan leather materials such as Mirum, one of the only sustainable leather alternatives made entirely without plastic. “And, of course, creating new products that I love.”
Featured and inset image courtesy of Jessica Kruger. No changes were made to these images.
