Talk 13

Luxury as Excellence with Patrick Thomas

“I hate the word luxury. I think we should replace it with the search for excellence and quality,” shares Patrick Thomas, industry legend, previous CEO of Hermès, and MycoWorks’ board member. In this episode, Patrick shares what true luxury is for him, how connected luxury is to sustainability, and his thoughts on the future of alternative materials and Reishi™ for the luxury industry.

“Luxury, for me, it’s about beauty, sensuality, creativity.” 

“For a company, having a vision is absolutely key. You have to know where you want to go. For Hermès, the vision is to be the ultimate quality of luxury.”

“Excellence: a product that it’s going to last for years and years. That’s real sustainability. That’s luxury.”

“Luxury adds to the product a consent of pleasure of the senses.”

“I’m convinced of the huge future and massive potential of MycoWorks and Reishi™. People will become more and more conscious about the environment with time which will make alternative materials, like Reishi™, huge.” 

“The Victoria bag in Sylvania really matches the level of sensuality, aesthetics, and beauty that we accomplished in the past with animal hide. Very few people would believe that it’s not made with fine animal hide.” 

“For me, sustainability is about going back to common sense.” 

 In this episode:

• 1:30 Becoming the CEO of Hermès: “An encounter”
• 5:00 The definition of true luxury
• 8:10 Luxury and sustainability
• 10:00 Alternative materials, Reishi™ and the future of the luxury world 
• 19:20 Anecdote from the luxury world: The story of a 70 year-old Hermès saddle
• 23:15 Sustainability: “Going back to common sense.” 

MycoWorks Talks is a space to feed your wonder and curiosity for a new class of materials. Xevi Gallego, our VP of Brand & Marketing, hosts talks with people in the MycoWorks universe, taking you on a behind-the-scenes journey of unfiltered conversations about our product, technology, our incredible team, and much more. 

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