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Dyes play a major role in our daily lives – in the clothes we wear, the cosmetics we use or the food we eat. Most of the dyes we use are of synthetic origin, which poses potential health risks – both in the manufacturing process and in the dyeing process or use. In addition, dyes and pigments in industrial wastewater are not infrequently released into the environment, where they remain and damage ecosystems.
MycoColors, a project by designer Birke Weber and biochemist Friederike Hoberg, addresses precisely this problem. The two are researching the potential of alternative dyes – specifically: from fungi. With MycoColors, they want to develop optimal growth conditions for colour-producing mycelium with the aim of creating a sustainable extraction of dyes and an innovative dyeing process and establishing fungal dyes in the textile and fashion industry. Because: fungi offer a lively, broad colour spectrum that runs through all the colours of the rainbow and is far from being exhausted
The advantages: The fungal mycelium from which the dyes are extracted grows within just a few days, cultivation takes place in inexpensive culture mediums and production is independent of weather and season. Furthermore, MycoColors works in a closed material cycle: resources such as water and nutrients can be recovered and reused, and by-products such as the biodegradable mycelium can either be returned to nature or upcycled – for example, by using it for paper production.
»The textile and fashion industry uses vast quantities of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals, including synthetic dyes, for its ever-changing product range. But the end customers cannot trace everything that is hidden in a purchased T-shirt or carpet. A humane and environmentally friendly alternative made from fungi aims to revise this uncertainty, especially with regard to the colors in a purchased product.«
Modularity is not a new concept. For decades, it has shaped architecture, furniture and industrial design. Applying it to soft textiles, however, opens up an entirely new discussion.
Creativity and curiosity have always been our driving force. Our work evolves through prototypes—never finished, always raising new questions about materials, processes, and possibilities.
Both the fashion and textile industry often celebrates creativity. Yet many of the industry’s creative decisions are made long before a designer ever begins designing. Colour being one of them. The thing is, by the time a designer selects yarn, someone else has already determined the available colours, sequences and combinations. Choice exists, but only within boundaries.
“Through hands-on experimentation, I explore the potential of new surfaces and alternative forms of leather, aiming to reconnect human life with the natural world as an interconnected fabric.”
