Today, sponge is at the heart of the new material being developed by several companies to replace leather. Sustainable and innovative.
Why make leather from cows when there are fungi? There is currently exciting progress in developing more sustainable materials in the fashion world than polyester (plastic-based), cotton (water and pesticide-hungry) and leather (from animal farming).
Several companies are working with mycelium, the root structure of fungi, to create leather-like materials. Both Stella McCartney and Adidas have released versions of signature products made in the sponge material Mylo, in one case the Stan Smith shoe and in the other the Frayme bag. Hermès has instead teamed up with MycoWorks to produce its Victoria bag in their Sylvania material, which originates from the Japanese mushroom reishi.
Trend-sensitive home brewers of kombucha can experiment with their own yeasts. In the fermentation of tea with sugar, a scoby is formed, a compact fungus consisting of cellulose fibers that can be dried into a leather-like material. Unfortunately, they risk melting in the rain, unlike their lab-grown cousins.
