There has been a lot of hype around the plant-based leather alternative mycelium, but so far very little in the way of products. Stella McCartney and Bolt Threads are about to change that, with their first luxury bag made from Mylo — Bolt Threads’s mushroom leather material — going on sale on July 1.
Available now for pre-order, the Frayme Mylo bag will sell for £1,995 (around $2,490) exclusively via Stella McCartney’s e-commerce site and stores globally. It is the culmination of five years of collaboration between the LVMH-owned brand and California-based Bolt Threads, and took over 5,000 iterations of the material and six of the product to perfect. The Frayme Mylo will initially launch with a 100-bag limited run, each individually numbered, but Stella McCartney plans to integrate Mylo into its main collection of bags from 2023 onwards.
“Bringing the first-ever luxury bag made from Mylo to market is a massive milestone for conscientious consumers, the biomaterials industry, and the future of luxury fashion,” Bolt Threads founder and CEO Dan Widmaier says.
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Sustainability experts agree that to bring innovative materials to scale, it is crucial to have brand support and investment. Stella McCartney was an early supporter of mycelium, joining Bolt Threads’s consortium of brand backers alongside Lululemon, Kering, and Adidas.
A spate of fashion brands has since invested in the vegan leather alternative, touting its ability to mimic animal leather without relying on plastics. The Hermès Victoria bag has been reimagined in mycelium produced by San Francisco startup Mycoworks, which secured $125 million in Series C funding in January to scale its operations. Premium athletic brand Lululemon released a yoga mat and two gym bags made from Mylo in early 2022, the latter of which are currently available to purchase through the brand’s website, and are on display at Selfridges in London, alongside Stella McCartney’s early prototypes of a Mylo bra top and leggings.