Harper's Bazaar

The Future of Fashion Is Fungi

“More than just an eco-friendly leather alternative, mycelium leather has luxury brands excited because of its remarkable quality. The hand of mycelium leather is so buttery soft and supple that Hermès, known for upholding the most stringent standards with its leather, is already experimenting with it. In March, Hermès and MycoWorks unveiled a sample for the French maison’s Victoria travel bag reimagined with Sylvania, an exclusive amber-hued mycelium leather. MycoWorks, which last year raised $45 million in a Series B financing round from investors including Natalie Portman and John Legend, uses a patented technology called Fine Mycelium to grow a dense mesh of mycelium to precise brand specifications for thickness and softness. “We like to say that our vision as a company is to grow the future of materials,” says MycoWorks CEO Matt Scullin. “It’s engineerable and bespoke.” To that end, Sylvania is finished in France at Hermès’s own tanneries. “MycoWorks’s vision and values echo those of Hermès: a strong fascination with natural raw material and its transformation, a quest for excellence, with the aim of ensuring that objects are put to their best use and that their longevity is maximized,” says Hermès Artistic Director Pierre-Alexis Dumas of the unique partnership.”

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