Mushroom Leather: From a Small Lab to Hermes’ Shelves
US-based MycoWorks produces Reishi, a mycelium-based leather alternative made through the company’s proprietary Fine Mycelium technology. In 2023 it opened a 136,000-square-foot factory in Union, South Carolina, employing more than 350 people, backed by $125 million raised in a funding round closed in January 2022. The factory can produce millions of square feet of Reishi a year, and its client list includes the French house Hermes, as well as Ligne Roset and General Motors. Patrick Thomas, former CEO of Hermes and now a MycoWorks board member, said: “This is the moment the luxury industry has been waiting for: a plastic-free leather alternative that delivers undeniable beauty and performance, at scale.”
Recycled Fabrics: A Story of Collapse and Recovery
Circulose — a cellulosic pulp made from recycled cotton and clothing waste instead of raw cotton — tells a very different, more cautionary story about how real this sector actually is. Its producer, Renewcell, was once the global leader in this space, with H&M investing roughly $29 million over seven years through loans and purchase agreements. But rising production costs, orders that fell to zero in November 2023, and H&M pulling its support in January 2024 pushed the company into bankruptcy that February, with its share price collapsing by more than 95%. Investment firm Altor later bought the company’s assets and relaunched it under the name Circulose, announcing in 2026 that commercial production would resume at the Ortviken plant in Sweden in the final quarter of the year, alongside a new multi-year partnership with H&M and a “Circulose Forward” platform to help brands integrate circular cellulosic fibers into their own supply chains. This isn’t simply a failure story — it’s a lesson in the gap between brands wanting sustainability as a marketing tool and their actual commitment once costs rise.
Wood-Based Fibers: A Cleaner Chemical Alternative, Still Growing
Finland’s Spinnova produces textile fiber from wood, cellulose pulp, and agricultural residue like wheat and barley straw, through a fully mechanical process that avoids the chemical solvents used in conventional viscose production. The Woodspin plant, opened in May 2023 in partnership with Brazilian paper company Suzano, produces around 1,000 tonnes of fiber a year, and Spinnova took full ownership of it in October 2025. Its actual commercial partners include Marimekko and Bergans, plus a collaboration with Icebreaker (owned by VF Corp) to develop a circular fabric blend with merino wool. Production is still modest compared with the scale of the global fashion industry, but it’s one of the clearest examples of an alternative textile technology that actually works outside the lab.
How Should a Fashion Designer Read These Developments?
All three stories reveal the same pattern: technology alone isn’t enough. Real success needs a committed industrial partner, as Hermes was for MycoWorks; a price that can compete with conventional alternatives, which is exactly where Circulose stumbled before restructuring; and manufacturing partnerships that secure real production volume, as Spinnova built with Suzano. Following this sector properly means reading past the marketing: who is the real industrial backer behind each new material, and has it actually reached commercial production, or is it still at the prototype stage?
These three materials differ in how close they are to real industrial-scale production, but they agree on one thing: a gradual shift — measured in actual investment, not just in restructured announcements — toward production paths that use fewer resources and are easier to trace through the supply chain. That is exactly why following this space every year matters for anyone actually working in fashion design today.
For anyone who wants to learn how to evaluate and choose innovative fabrics and integrate them confidently into their own collections, the Diploma of Human and Technological Creativity for Fashion Designers at Anna Stella Academy covers full modules on modern materials and industrial sustainability standards. More details at annastella-academy.com/courses/
