Mushroom Leather

Growing demand for a more sustainable leather industry with a low environmental impact has prompted the development of alternative vegetable- and waste product-based leather materials. These have included pineapple leather, banana leather, seaweed leather and fish skin leather, to name a few. This material is a mushroom-based leather called MuSkin, derived from the large fruiting body (mushroom) of Phellinus ellipsoideus, and developed by Italian design agency Grado Zero Espace.

This is not the first time that mushrooms have proven useful to humankind, beyond their consumption as a tasty foodstuff. ‘Otzi’, the 5300 year old natural mummy found preserved in ice in the French Alps, carried with him two species of polypore fungus: the bracket fungus Fomes fomentarius and the birch polypore, Fomitopsis betulina. F. betulina has medicinal properties as an anaesthetic, and can also be used as tinder, and F. fomentarius is known even today as an excellent fire starter, which is why it is also called ‘tinder fungus’. The spongy layer just under the hard outer skin of the mushroom is dry and flammable, and can smoulder for hours. It can also be soaked and pressed into cloth-like sheets called ‘amadou’, the name of which is derived from the French for tinder. When made into amadou it has a soft, suede-like texture and can be used as a fabric. A number of clothing designers are now starting to use it as a vegan leather substitute. German company ZVNDER, for example, have made wallets, watch straps, hats, and even a pair of trainers from fungal leather.

Mushrooms have also been put to many and varied uses by contemporary designers: San Francisco startup MycoWorks has experimented with a fungal leather based on the reishi mushroom; Ecovative Design in New York City has used the edible oyster mushroom to make eco-friendly packing materials, building materials, and textiles; and a number of architects and designers have experimented with the use of mycelium-based materials in the manufacture of grown objects and structures that are biodegradable and that produce edible mushrooms as they grow (see below).

Excitingly, the mechanical properties of mycelium-based materials are ‘tunable’, and they can be made more or less elastic or ductile by changing their feeding substrates and growing conditions. This ‘tunability’ is attributed to the interchangeable chitin, lipid, and protein content of their cell walls: mycelia with high chitin content are strong and structurally stiff, whereas those with high lipid and protein content are more ductile, as they act as bioplasticizers.