The mushroom craze is hard to escape - they’re absolutely everywhere you turn. My room is living proof of this: a mushroom hammock in the corner, mycelium wall decor above my window, two mushroom shaped crystals atop a shelf, and “Fantastic Fungi '' often playing on my laptop. Oh, and let’s not forget the mushroom earrings that I’m currently wearing as I write this.
Now, mushrooms are undeniably cool looking and quite tasty, but seriously, why is everyone so obsessed? Could the adoration be attributed to an uptick in psychedelic usage - frankly, maybe - but perhaps, it goes beyond that.
As we further pursue cleaner fashion options in the face of climate change and push to make more responsible consumer decisions, the search for sustainable textiles continues. As you can imagine, fungi are cropping up in this realm as well.
Made from the intricate roots found at the base of mushrooms, a new form of vegan leather is being piloted. In its beginning stages this “mycelium leather” is showing great advantages. Unlike the alternative cow’s leather, which uses thousands of gallons of water, requires incredible amounts of fossil fuel, causes habitat destruction, and spares the lives of unsuspecting bovine, lab-grown mycelium leather is completely carbon neutral. This new leather is also fully biodegradable, causing other forms of vegan leather to pale in comparison as they are largely composed of virgin plastics that take years and years to breakdown.
Mycelium leather has been in the works for years, posing issues related to growth inconsistencies and uncertainty surrounding the durability of the material. It wasn’t until a recent $45 million investment into MycoWorks, a large fungi leather production facility, that it became a viable alternative. It was there that material developers created a highly functional system that proved to overcome previous setbacks. MycoWorks now works closely with Hermes, who recently announced that they would be redesigning their classic Victoria travel bag so that it could be crafted from the new material.
With sleek branding and clients such as Adidas, Lululemon, and Stella McCartney, California-based start-up Mylo is also appearing at the forefront of this fashion revolution. They have trademarked the term “unleather” to describe their eco-friendly mushroom leather which made its runway debut at Paris Fashion Week.
Now come on, that all sounds pretty great. Mushroom leather is a huge win for the environment and could also cut back on the 14% of global greenhouse emissions caused by livestock. Being in the beginning stages, it is not realistic to expect shrooms to immediately dominate the fashion landscape. It is likely that mycelium will actually be first implemented as a packaging alternative, but nonetheless, it looks like the mushroom boom is here to stay!
Images from:
- https://www.mycoworks.com/
- https://www.mylo-unleather.com/
댓글