Hanna Zelcer
Unless you’ve been living under a fashion rock, you’re bound to have seen the spurt of fleshy, spore-bearing fungi. Mushrooms have been sprouting up everywhere in the fashion world from inspiration to trippy motifs, sustainable packaging, leather and textile. Shrooms have been spotted on shirts, bags, jewelry, hats, manicures and even furniture.
The rise of the “cottagecore” aesthetic has propelled the shroom boom in full force. It started with the Italian Murano mushroom glass lamps swarming social media. These rare vintage lamps have taken instagram by storm at the steep price of around $390. Supreme followed in the footsteps of the trend with a collaboration with FLOS, an Italian light company. Together, they created the Supreme FLOS Bellhop Lamp which resembles a toadstool that retails at $400.
Mushroom adorned pieces have also sprung popularity across fashion houses such as Fiorucci, Gucci, Supreme, Marc Jacobs, JW Anderson and many more. Fiorucci created a “Woodland” collection to highlight how nature has thrived throughout the global pandemic. This collection is sustainable and features clothing and accessories inspired by love, earth and nature. The collection features many mushroom pieces such as a phone case, t-shirt dress and sweatshirts.
Gucci may be extremely coveted in the fashion world, but did you know there is a mushroom equivalent that is just as exclusive, if not more? Gucci incorporated the fashionable fungi into their 2019 Cruise Collection. It featured everything from leather coats to children's backpacks. The intertwining of luxury fashion and mushrooms can be no coincidence considering the gucci mushroom is the most expensive shroom.
Mushrooms represent a youthful nostalgia that encompasses an escape in nature. In the age of Coronavirus, any outlet to the outdoors is very welcome. Mushrooms are revolutionizing fashion through their ability to heal physically and mentally as well as be a constant reminder to be more in tune with nature. The first Indian designer to showcase at the Paris Haute Couture week, Rahul Mishra, a sustainable couture brand, has created a Couture Spring 2021 collection called ‘The Dawn’ inspired by one of the oldest species of vegetation on the planet. His collection brings psychedelic renaissance to a whole new level through the “flush of life”. The collection portrays “mushrooms as masterpieces of natural engineering” the designer said in a Zoom preview, quoting botanist Nicholas P. Money. “They capture decay and build new life.” The dresses speak for themselves, they are exquisitely crafted and feature embellishments imitating the shapes and colors of polypores, or bracket fungi, oscillating in waves of color.
Similarly, Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen was also inspired by the beauty of the spore-bearing fungi. She was inspired by how fungi sustain life on Earth. Her dresses contain subtle mushroom elements such as the pleating which was inspired by the gills of a shroom. Mycelium, commonly known as the roots of a mushroom, have branches similar to lace. These branchings inspired the silhouettes as well as the embellishments in the collection. Van Herpen was touched by how mycelium is like an underground communication system. She related this to society's lack of communication this year due to COVID-19 isolation and how nature connects in a similar way as us.
These fungi friends have not only been an inspiration in the fashion world but the textile industry as well. Mushrooms are being used as sustainable, vegan alternatives to packaging, leather and even textiles! The mushroom packaging is made up of 100% biodegradable and renewable material that can be directly recycled back into nature, or upcycling. This packaging is known as the “new luxury”. The packaging is a styrofoam-like material that is made of fungus roots and residues from farming. Shrooms are single handedly spearheading the sustainability movement.
Mushrooms are taking over the role of a cow and are being used to create leather. Using mycelium, the root-like structure of a mushroom, grown on agricultural waste. This forms a thick mat that resembles leather. This natural biological process does not need sunlight as it utilizes the roots and not the mushroom. This process only takes a couple weeks compared to the years it takes a cow to mature. The final leather has similar durability and feel to real leather. This revelation is a big step for the fashion community and could become the new future of leather.
Yet another use for mushrooms in the fashion world is textiles. Mushrooms are being used to create an organic textile called Myx that is grown using the spores and plant fibres. Myx is grown using oyster mushroom mycelium. It takes about 3-4 weeks to be grown on a matrix of strands of plant fibre. The material is a byproduct of commercial mushroom production which makes it low cost and sustainable. After harvesting the mushrooms the remaining material can be shaped and dried out, which makes it light-weight, flexible and insulating. This new textile will revolutionize sustainable fashion and help propel the fashion industry in the right direction.
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