THE FUTURE IS FUNGI

he wondrous fungi-inspired creations in Dutch couture designer Iris van Herpen’s spring 2021 collection are like nothing else in the fashion world. Undulating crowns of brass coils top delicate micro-plissé gowns with bodices formed from sinuous silk tendrils. An early adopter of 3D printing and advocate for sustainability, Van Herpen has emerged as a kind of oracle within the fashion industry. She spent lockdown in Amsterdam reading biologist Merlin Sheldrake’s which describes the hidden world of mycelium, the sprawling underground root-like networks of fungi (the visible part we know as mushrooms are akin to fruit on trees). “It is beautiful to see that within nature, there is already this ‘wood wide web’ that shows very strong parallels to our own digital communication systems,” says Van Herpen. “During the pandemic, there has been a realisation of our own fragility on this planet. More and more, I started to see couture as a platform for new ideas.”