Words by Smiley Team
Who would've thought that the latest ‘it’ handbag would be made from mushrooms? But it happened. An exclusive Hermès handbag is made from a leather alternative made from fine mycelium – a material that is both durable and sustainable.
Made from the intertwined roots of fungi, this new eco-friendly “mushroom leather” could help reduce carbon emissions from the fashion industry, its creators claim. “We like to say that our vision as a company is to grow the future of materials,” MycoWorks CEO Matt Scullin told Harpers Bazaar. “It’s engineerable and bespoke.”
Mushrooms may not seem the chicest material but, while leather products account for 15% of the luxury goods market, mycelium-based leather could have transformative effects.
Producing animal leather is linked to deforestation and greenhouse gases emissions from breeding livestock. Meanwhile, vegan alternatives - often made from plastic - are also harmful to the environment.
In contrast, Reishi, as the fungi-based product is known, is carbon neutral and can be grown to order, completely eliminating wastage.
But it also surpasses animal leather in durability and flexibility. “It can give the same emotional response as an animal leather. It has that hand-feel of rarity,” Matt told the Guardian.
Whereas naturally-occurring mycelium does not grow with the same properties as animal leather, engineers can manipulate mycelium cells as they grow to become more densely intertwined and stronger.
The company producing Reishi, MycoWorks, discovered the properties of fungi through the work of San Fransisco artist Phil Ross. He experimented with biotechnology for years before his collaborator, Sophia Wang saw the potential of the material and helped him introduce it to the market.
Others are uniting behind the idea, including another US company, Bolt Threads, which is also working with fungi-based leather. They helped Stella McCartney produce a mushroom leather handbag shown at Fashion Week, and are also collaborating with Adidas.
