GARRIGA Brown is a vegan women's belt in Desserto® cactus leather — a plant-based material made from the nopal (prickly pear), grown in Zacatecas, Mexico. a fine 3 cm strap in soft cactus leather with a square gold-tone buckle. An everyday belt with a quiet, considered finish. Strap width 3 cm, with a nickel-free square gold-tone buckle and a keeper loop matching the strap. The tip is square, slightly tapered. Also available in black.
Cactus leather is soft and supple, with a grain and a drape that read like leather — and yet it is tough exactly where a belt works: strong resistance to abrasion, rubbing, tearing and pull at the buckle and holes. The nickel-free buckle is not a detail: nickel is among the most common contact allergens, and a buckle sits against skin all day.
PVC-free and phthalate-free, REACH compliant, and certified USDA Certified Biobased, PETA-Approved Vegan, OEKO-TEX and V-Label.
Details:
Material: Desserto® cactus leather (nopal + biobased polymer on a recycled cotton/polyester backing) — soft, supple, breathable and water resistant.
Strap width: 3 cm.
Buckle: nickel-free square gold-tone buckle.
Thickness: about 0.07 in / 2 mm.
Care: wipe with a lint-free cloth, dry or slightly damp.
Size guide: S = 80 cm (31.5 in) · M = 85 cm (33.5 in) · L = 90 cm (35.4 in) · XL = 95 cm (37.4 in). Measure a belt you already own rather than going by your trouser size: lay it flat and measure from the buckle prong to the hole you actually use. Between two sizes, take the larger one.
Care: clean with a soft, lint-free, slightly damp cloth. Do not machine wash and never submerge the belt — it can cause irreversible damage. Let it air dry, away from direct heat and sunlight.
Composition: 100% Vegan - 0% Animal Exploitation
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End of life: when the product reaches the end of its life, or you no longer need it, give it a new purpose — think reuse or donation.
What is cactus leather? A leather alternative that Desserto® makes from the nopal, the prickly pear, grown on its own ranch in the Mexican state of Zacatecas. It takes about three cactus pads to make one linear metre of material. What matters is the harvest: only the mature pads are cut, every six to eight months, and the plant stays in the ground, unharmed — it regrows and is harvested again, across the roughly eight years a plantation lives. Nothing is uprooted, nothing is felled.
Why a cactus? Because of how it lives. The nopal runs a form of photosynthesis called CAM: it opens at night, when the air is cooler and damper, and so loses a fraction of the water ordinary crops lose. A conventional crop needs around 1,000 litres of water per kilo of dry matter; the cactus manages on about 200 — and takes it from rain and air, which is why the ranch runs without any irrigation system at all. It is grown organically, without herbicides or pesticides, and sun-dried. And because cactus grows where little else will, the crop brings degraded semi-arid land back into use instead of competing with good farmland.
In fairness: cactus leather is not plastic-free. The cactus is bound with a polymer and laid on a textile backing; independent estimates put the biobased share of the finished material at around three quarters. And unlike animal leather it does not develop a patina — it keeps its finish rather than ageing into one.
NAE Vegan Shoes
We are a Portuguese company and we sell vegan shoes and accessories worldwide. We make sure our products are free from animal exploitation. We believe in ethical consumption that makes a difference. Instead of leather we use materials such as cork, cactus leather, Piñatex, AppleSkin, recycled and ecological microfibres and others. With over 18 years of experience, we deliver quality products with an ethical dimension.