Stella McCartney Launches Sustainable Garments Made From Mylo™ Mycelium Leather

The animal-free leather is created from a renewable underground network of fungi.

Stella McCartney has released two historic garments made with a vegan leather called Mylo™ created by Bolt Threads. The innovative material is made from mycelium, an underground root system of fungi that connects mushrooms through a network of nutrients. As we reflect on our own interconnectedness – impossible to deny when crises such as a global pandemic and climate change loom – it’s past time to reevaluate our place in the networks of our planet. Always at the forefront of sustainable innovation, Stella McCartney is leading this charge with these garments that prove sustainability doesn’t have to sacrifice style.

The garments – a black bustier top and a pair of utilitarian trousers – shatter the limits of sustainable biomaterials, allowing for the luxury and sensuality that consumers expect from Stella McCartney while representing a major step forward for sustainable fashion. Stella McCartney’s ongoing partnership with Bolt Threads resulted in a Mylo™ prototype of the Falabella bag in 2018. This is the first time that the material has been used to create wearable Stella McCartney garments. Mylo™ is soft and similar to animal leather, but it is created by Bolt Threads’ expert scientists in a lab. These scientists have discovered a way to recreate the atmosphere below the forest floor, where mycelium grows best, in order to produce the fabric. It’s the kind of project that demonstrates how much nature still has to teach us.

Paris Jackson wears the new Mylo™ garments.

The production of traditional leather requires raising cattle, which has catastrophic environmental impacts and motivates the destruction of massive swaths of the Amazon rainforest. Additionally, animal agriculture accounts for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Even the synthetic leathers currently on the market come with problems; most of them use petroleum, a fossil fuel and problematic pollutant of ecosystems. That’s why Mylo™ indicates a huge step in the right direction.

Neither of the garments are currently for sale, although model and animal rights advocate Paris Jackson was the first to try them on. The success of these designs is a hopeful sign for the development of sustainable materials, and Stella McCartney has plans to integrate Mylo™ into future collections.

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