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Beyond Packaging: How Mycelium is Reshaping Fashion
13 June 2025 /
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Beyond Packaging: How Mycelium is Reshaping Fashion
When we first introduced mycelium packaging to the skincare industry—earning recognition with the 2020 Wallpaper Design Award—we understood that this fungal network represented more than innovation; it embodied a philosophy of regeneration. Mycelium composite is a living, breathing product which can grow and turn into packaging. This thread-like root system of fungi naturally breaks down organic matter as it grows, can be shaped and moulded during development, and after being used, returns to the soil to complete its natural cycle.
This vision of closed-loop sustainability, where materials contribute to rather than degrade soil quality, is exemplified in the work of Helena Elston Studio. Based between New York and London, this regenerative design studio is advancing a radical proposition: fashion that doesn't just minimise harm, but actively heals.
Founded in 2021, Helena Elston Studio operates at the intersection of fashion, science, and ecology, crafting what Elston calls "wearable ecosystems." Her commitment to material circularity challenges the very foundation of synthetic fashion production by proposing textiles that are grown, not manufactured—garments designed to return to the earth through the transformative power of fungi.
Where traditional fashion production extracts and depletes, Elston's mycelium-based textiles participate in nature's cycles of renewal.
This June, Helena Elston Studio launched its first mycelium shirt collection at a pop-up event in New York City. Each piece in this capsule collection tells a unique material story—grown using fungi and constructed from textile waste, these shirts represent a fundamental shift in how we conceive of clothing's lifecycle.
The collection provokes essential conversations around microbial design and biodegradation, prompting consumers to consider not just how their clothes are made, but how they might unmake themselves. Like our mycelium packaging that returns nutrients to the soil upon decomposition, these garments are designed with their end-of-life as integral to their purpose.
Helena Elston Studio represents the next evolution of the principles we established with our mycelium packaging. Both approaches recognise that the future of design lies not in creating materials that persist indefinitely, but in developing systems that participate in natural cycles of growth, transformation, and renewal.
Helena will be bringing another pop-up to London in early July, keep an eye on her socials for all the details. To get a piece of mycelium in your hands, shop our perfumes and candles, all of our fragrance and candle glass containers come protected by mycelium packaging.
In mycelium, we find not just a material, but a model for how human innovation can work in harmony with the living systems that sustain us all.
References: Helena Elston
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