Biotechnology

Phil Ross: From Fungi Art to Hermès

The mushroom that wants to be a handbag

For decades, artist Phil Ross grew structures from mycelium—the root-like networks of fungi—exhibiting them in galleries as living sculptures. Then, in 2013, he co-founded MycoWorks, and his artistic obsession became a luxury material called Sylvania that Hermès would use for a Victoria bag. The path from avant-garde art to haute couture took twenty years and reveals how radical materials reach the luxury market.

Mycotecture to Materials Science

Ross's early work treated fungi as collaborators. He grew bricks, furniture, and architectural elements by feeding mycelium agricultural waste and letting it bind the material into solid forms. The results were exhibited at museums worldwide—living proof that biology could be a manufacturing process.

The leap to luxury required transforming an artistic practice into a controlled industrial process. MycoWorks developed "Fine Mycelium," growing fungal networks in precise conditions to create material with specific properties—flexibility, grain patterns, and durability that could meet Hermès's exacting standards.

Why It Matters for Luxury

Ross's trajectory illuminates how new materials enter luxury. The path wasn't from lab to market but from art to fashion—galleries established aesthetic credibility before factories achieved material consistency. Hermès wasn't buying a leather substitute; they were partnering with a vision that had spent decades developing outside commercial pressures.

The MycoWorks story also reveals luxury's role in materials development. High margins and patient customers allow experimentation that mass markets can't support. If mycelium materials eventually reach broader use, it will be because luxury brands funded their early development.

The Material: Fine Mycelium

Ross's fungal material in detail—how MycoWorks grows leather-like sheets from mycelium, the Hermès partnership that brought it to luxury goods, and the scale challenges facing biological manufacturing.

Mycelium Leather as Luxury Biotech Materials Science

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