FUNGI FASHION Hermes creates fungi version of its classic Victoria bag
Leather is often a byword for luxury , but in these more sustainable times leather is often a byword for animal cruelty and with veganism on the rise luxury brands are starting to pay attention to the lifestyle choices of their customers and making radical changes .
Brands like Stella McCartney , Gucci , and GmbH have all tried leather substitutes to varying degrees of success and the latest brand to take notice is luxury French goods purveyor Hermès who have just announced their first bag made with ‘ mushroom leather ’ in collaboration with American start-up MycoWork .
Using their new material made from the interlaced thread-like roots of fungus — which the company calls Reishi Fine Mycelium aka Sylvania . The fungi-derived fabric is billed as “ the exemplar of a new generation of biotech materials .
Three years in the making Sylvania is the result of a shared vision for growing the future of materials and a quest to unlock new design possibilities .
To present this new leather-like material Hermès has choosen to re-imagine their popular ‘ Victoria ’ duffle bag , the amber coloured leather-like material is produced in MycoWorks ’ California facility , then tanned and finished in France by the Hermès tanners to further refine its strength and durability , and is finally shaped in the Hermès ’ workshops by their skilled artisans .
Pierre-Alexis Dumas , Hermès Artistic Director , says :
“ MycoWorks ’ 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 . With Sylvania , Hermès is at the heart of what it has always been : innovation in the making .”
The new “ Victoria ” bag will be available towards the end of 2022 .
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