Hello! My name is Maxine Tan. I am a Filipina interior and industrial designer with a passion for material research and development. I am currently based in Jersey City and graduating from The New School Parsons School of Design, New York City on May 2025.
Kakaw Leather is a sustainable leather alternative made from cacao waste, specifically pod husks and bean shells. It is machine-stitchable, edge-burnishable for a polished finish, and exhibits a degree of water resistance—making it a viable material for industries to experience luxury through waste.
Kakaw Leather pays homage to the Philippines-- honoring the fruit, the farmers and the heritage behind it. It showcases the Philippines a force capable of transforming waste into a material with value, reclaiming cultural and economic agency in the global chocolate narrative.
Kakaw Leather has been tested on a side table I have entitled Cahoy. This word comes from Cacao and Kahoy, which means wood in Cebuano. It features a minimal design, attached only through dado joints and features a patch of Kakaw Leather in the middle of the tabletop with aqua blue stitching to give it a pop of color.
Kakaw Leather is a sustainable leather alternative made from cacao waste, specifically pod husks and bean shells. It is machine-stitchable, edge-burnishable for a polished finish, and exhibits a degree of water resistance—making it a viable material for industries to experience luxury through waste.
Kakaw Leather pays homage to the Philippines-- honoring the fruit, the farmers and the heritage behind it. It showcases the Philippines a force capable of transforming waste into a material with value, reclaiming cultural and economic agency in the global chocolate narrative.
Kakaw Leather has been tested on three projects: (1) Pitaka (Wallet), and a collaboration with Filipino Fashion Designer, Robert Andrew Hiyas: (2) Pulo (Little Island-- as a dress) and (3) Kwelyo (Collar). It has demonstrated strong performance throughout all of these projects, confidently entering real-world applications. Kakaw Leather is more than just a material, but a manifesto that the future of design lies not in extraction but in innovation and transformation.
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