Luxury Brand Hermès Debuts Mushroom Leather Bag

Luxury fashion house Hermès has created an environmentally-friendly version of one of its classic bags. 

According to Business of Fashion, Hermès has partnered with California-based start-up MycoWorks to develop an eco-friendly version of Victoria bag. 

MycoWorks specialises in alternative textiles made from fungi. 

The new vegan-friendly and sustainable version of Victoria bag will be made with mushroom leather. 

Matt Scullin, MycoWorks CEO, said: “We could not imagine a better partner than Hermès to present our first object made of Fine Mycelium. Hermès and MycoWorks share common values of craftsmanship, quality, innovation, and patience."

Hermès worked with MycoWorks for three years to develop the patented Fine Mycelium, a mushroom-derived material, into a vegan leather called Sylvania. 

MycoWorks’ Fine Mycelium is a patented cultivation process that uses fungi’s capacity to bind to itself and other materials, making it similar to leather.  

The French fashion house used Sylvania as the base for the new Victoria bag. 

Pierre-Alexis Dumas, Hermès Artistic Director, said: “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.”

Hermès’ mushroom leather Victoria bag will release by the end of the 2021.