Victoria, the new Hermès bag comes from mushrooms

Hermès' collaboration with Mycoworks bears fruit with the first vegan leather bag made from the vegetative system of mushrooms.

More and more fashion brands are developing or using innovative alternative materials to animal leather.This is the turn of Hermès, which features a version of his Victoria bag made in Sylvania, new material obtained from mushrooms thanks to the Fine mycelium process patented by Mycoworks, a San Francisco-based startup that has found a way to transform a “network of threads from the root structure of mushrooms into a fabric that mimics the properties of skin.”The result is a sort of natural leather, biodegradable, very soft to the touch, resistant and durable.

The new Hermès bag

Hermès' collaboration with Mycoworks does not mean that the French fashion house will completely remove the animal skin.But it is already a step forward, it is a signal that comes from one of the most important international luxury brands and that is destined to lead the way.

The new version for autumn-winter 21/22 of the Victoria handbag, one of the most famous from Hermès, was made in Sylvania, a sort of natural leather which is in turn composed of a material, the Reishi, patented by Mycoworks, exploiting the potential of the mycelium, the vegetative system of fungi.

The fiber is produced through a cultivation process that uses the growth and ability of fungi to bond to themselves and other materials, making it a viable alternative to traditional leather.To achieve this result, the two brands worked in tandem for about three years and experimented with a solution that is actually more ecological than eco-leather - which is based on plastic – precisely because it was created starting from a completely organic material.

A bag that Peta likes

“This great first step is further proof that the future of fashion is vegan,” we read on the website Pete.It seems that the organization in support of animal rights even sent one to Hermès bottle of vegan champagne to celebrate the initiative.It is certainly not a point of arrival but, as mentioned, it is only a first ethical and sustainable goal.The new Victoria bag will only be available for purchase towards end of 2022 at the price of approx five thousand euros, in line with that of the corresponding calfskin bag.The goal is to meet the tastes of an ever-growing public attentive to sustainability.