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Laurie Demir (LORIG) — Press photo
Having won five awards in 2025, French artist and designer Laurie Demir will exhibit Kami-Kami at Milan Design Week in April 2026; the biodegradable material is made from keratin fibers discarded by hair salons and barbershops
PARIS — Kami-Kami was born out of loss. Artist and designer Laurie Demir, known professionally as LORIG, was living with alopecia and began questioning what happened to the hair fibers she shed every day. That inquiry gave rise to one of the most original innovations in contemporary design: a fully natural, additive-free, and completely biodegradable material made from human hair and animal fur that would otherwise be discarded or incinerated. Conceived in March 2020 during the first COVID-19 lockdown, the invention has since earned awards across three continents and will be exhibited at Milan Design Week in April 2026.
The invention emerged from a personal need that gradually evolved into large-scale technical research. Affected by alopecia, an autoimmune condition that causes hair loss, Demir began to question the fate of shed hair fibers and the value society assigns to a material so ubiquitous yet so overlooked. That reflection set off an experimental process spanning several years, resulting in the creation of a structured material with consistent physical properties and a wide range of functional and aesthetic applications.
LORIG in her studio, handling a sheet of Kami-Kami
A 2022 graduate of the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts d’Angers, in France, with degrees in both fine art and object design, Demir developed Kami-Kami over five years of intensive research. The material is produced locally, within a short supply chain, using organic waste collected from barbershops, hair salons, and pet grooming services. With no chemical compounds involved in the manufacturing process, Kami-Kami can return to the soil at the end of its life cycle as organic compost, embodying a fully circular economy model.
The core raw material of Kami-Kami is keratin, a fibrous protein found in both human hair and the fur of domestic animals. Industry estimates suggest that in France alone, thousands of tons of keratin fibers are discarded or incinerated every year. Demir’s proposal is to reframe these fibers as a resource rather than waste. The result is a material that is at once as flexible as fine paper and structurally resistant, capable of being printed, sewn, shaped, backlit, and formed across multiple surfaces.
Kami-Kami rolls in three colorways — the material in its raw form
Kami-Kami’s applications extend across different segments of design and architecture. The material has already been developed for wall coverings, woodworking and marquetry, collectible design, furniture, lighting, packaging, and custom projects for designers, architects, and cultural institutions. The hybridization of artistic practice and technical expertise is precisely what sets Demir’s work apart on the international stage: she not only produces unique pieces but has also systematized a reproducible process that opens the door to industrial and commercial applications.
Arev — console table fully covered in Kami-Kami marquetry
Flow — backlit floor lamp in Kami-Kami
International recognition arrived in force throughout 2025. Demir won the ISOLA Design Awards in Dubai, in the innovative materials category, during Dubai Design Week. She subsequently received the Créatrice d’Avenir prize, a distinction granted in France to outstanding female creative entrepreneurs. She was also awarded the Trophée Impact95 at the Salon Effervescence and took home both the Grand Prize for Young Entrepreneurs and the Public’s Favorite Prize at the CréArgenteuil competition, in the Val-d’Oise region. In 2024, she was a finalist for the Prix Artiste-entrepreneur MOOVJEE.
Kami-Kami is listed in prestigious international material libraries, including MateriO’ and L’Oréal’s materials archive. Its presence in these specialized research and cataloging spaces represents formal recognition of the material’s technical innovation, positioning it as a reference for architects, designers, and fashion professionals seeking sustainable and experimental alternatives.
LORIG at her solo show REENCHANTER, Galerie AT5, Argenteuil, 2025
Demir’s exhibition history is both extensive and geographically wide-ranging. In 2025, she held a solo show titled REENCHANTER at Galerie AT5 in Argenteuil and participated in Dubai Design Week with a presentation at The Lana Promenade. That same year, she was featured at the London Design Festival at Shoreditch Town Hall and at Les Florilèges festival in Argenteuil with the show Organic Light. In 2024, she participated in Paris Design Week with Attractive Matters at Galerie FORMAE, and showed at the Schneider Gallery in Paris and at Centre Culturel La Teinturerie in Richelieu, where she was also artist-in-residence from April through June.
Before that, Demir had already moved through some of the most important institutional spaces in the French art and design scene. In 2023, she presented work at Maison et Objet in Villepinte, Europe’s largest interior design and decoration trade fair, and took part in Les Rendez-vous de la Matière at L’Atelier Richelieu in Paris, alongside collectives such as Bouture d’Objets. In 2022, she held the solo exhibition Le PAPIER-CHEVEUX at the Tchip space in Argenteuil, marking the first major public debut of Kami-Kami as a registered, authored material. In 2019, she participated in the Biennale Internationale de Design in Saint-Etienne and the Biennale Internationale de Design Graphique in Chaumont.
Demir’s work is now part of the permanent public collection of the CAPC, Centre d’Arts Plastiques et Contemporains, at the Prieuré de Vivoin in France, consolidating her place within the institutional circuit of contemporary art. Inclusion in a public collection attests to the cultural and historical significance of her research, and to its recognition beyond the fields of commercial design and material innovation.
The ecological dimension of Kami-Kami is inseparable from its aesthetic vision. The manufacturing process uses no chemical compounds, and as the material biodegrades, it enriches the soil as organic fertilizer. This production chain closes a virtuous cycle: keratin fibers once destined for landfill or incineration now follow a complete value trajectory, from local collection to finished product and, at end of life, back to the earth. The proposal engages directly with contemporary debates around the circular economy, environmental responsibility, and the reassessment of what societies choose to define as waste.
Fluxus — work on Kami-Kami, gold frame
For Demir, the transformation of a material perceived as waste into a medium for creation is simultaneously a poetic gesture and a political act. Each fiber carries, in its own logic, a memory and a narrative potential. Kami-Kami is not simply a material: it is a statement about what we choose to value, preserve, or throw away. This dual dimension, at once artistic and activist, gives Demir’s work a rare coherence between form, process, and message.
The next chapter in LORIG’s international trajectory will be her participation in Milan Design Week in April 2026, as a laureate of the ISOLA Design Awards. The event, one of the most important on the global design calendar, will gather the award winners at the Isola Design District from April 20 to 26. The Milan showcase consolidates Kami-Kami’s recognition as one of the most significant material innovations in contemporary design and positions the artist for new markets and international collaborations.
Information:
@lorigdesign (Instagram)
