the biological turn: fashion’s next revolution begins underground

Oct 11

Over the past several decades, fashion’s vision of progress has evolved through several dominant paradigms. In the postwar decades through the 1980s, the future was tied to industrial and the glamorous Zeitgeist - to mass production, synthetic fibers, and the chemical revolution that brought nylon, polyester, elastane, spandex, and acrylic etc. into the mainstream. It was an era that celebrated “newness”, democratized fashion, high-style clothing accessible to the middle class, and equated innovation with speed and accessibility. By the 1990’s and 2000’s, the meaning of the future shifted toward globalization, branding, and corporate consolidation Independent Maisons were absorbed into conglomerates such as LVMH, Kering, and Richemont, and creative directors became cultural icons. Innovation came to mean market expansion, image management, and financial growth. The industry’s structure became financialized - its promise of progress measured by quarterly performance.

In the 2010’s and 2020’s, the digital revolution took over. Artifical intelligence, 3D design, and data-driven trend forecasting defines a new phase of optimization. At the same time, sustainability entered the mainstream lexicon of fashion - appearing in campaigns, annual reports, and capsule collections. Yet most of these efforts remained performative rather than a real systemic change. The “future” was framed through digital efficiency and surface-level responsibility, while the material and ecological foundations of fashion remained largely unchanged.

So we can see that each decade had its own version of the “future”. From industrial expansion to global branding to digital optimization, every wave of innovation promised progress - yet together they have driven the industry against the wall. Growth became an unquestioned belief and the industry kept the same exploitative and wasteful structures (cheap labor, overproduction, trend churn), but added speed and efficiency - moving from seasonal production to weekly drops and developing micro trends regardless of the ecological or human costs. After all the advances in technology and efficiency, fashion now faces a deeper impasse: what does progress mean in an age of ecological limits? Optimization and automation have taken the industry as far as they can. They improve efficiency but they haven’t changed trajectory. What the industry now needs is a redefinition of innovation - one that focuses on resilience, circularity, and regeneration.

The Future of Circular Fashion (© Edie Lou)

The Biological Turn: Fungi and the Future of Circular Fashion

Each technological era of fashion has promised renewal, yet each has deepened the system’s dependence on extraction. The industrial age filled closets with synthetics; and the digital age optimized consumption through algorithms and data. What these phases shared was an unwavering faith in growth - the belief that innovation meant acceleration. Today, as the industry generates more than 92 million tons of textile waste annually, it faces more a fundamental question: how can progress exist within planetary limits.

So, the answer may not lie in further technology as we know it but from material science and bioengineering. Decades of research in mycology, microbiology, and biochemistry are slowly entering the fields of design and the industry. For decades, the industry’s “innovation” narrative meant speed, digitalization, or image, but now we’re finally seeing a structural shift - toward integration with biological systems and material intelligence. From fungi and algae to bacteria and mycelial networks - whose biological systems integrate creation and renewal as one process. These organisms model a different kind of intelligence - a systemic balance that creates and sustains systems through relationships. Through exchanges with other organisms and their environment, rather than through isolated or self-contained processes.

Across biology, certain organisms have mastered the principles that contemporary industries are only to beginning to rediscover and understand - cooperation, regeneration, and systemic efficiency. Algae (both micro- and macroalgae) perform photosynthesis, converting sunlight, CO2, and water into oxygen and biomass. They are responsible for 50-80% of the world’s oxygen production, depending on estimates. They have a closed loop metabolism - all outputs (oxygen, sugars, proteins, and lipids) are reintegrated into ecosystems. Their biomass is the foundation of aquatic food chains and plays a vital role in carbon sequestration. In contemporary material innovation, algae are emerging as a scalable bioresource. Their biomass is used to produce biodegradable fibers, pigments, and coatings while supporting carbon capture and wastewater purification across textile and packaging industries. Companies such as Algalife, Keel Labs, and Living Ink are proving that biological production can operate within ecological limits without sacrificing aesthetics.

Bacteria on the other hand act as the planet’s invisible recycling and filtration system. They are breaking down organic and inorganic compounds, converting them into forms that plants and other organisms can use. This underpins soil fertility and ecosystem productivity. In natural and engineered systems (like wetlands and wastewater plants), bacteria digest pollutants, oils, and toxins, cleaning water, as part of the nitrogen and carbon cycles. They decompose dead organisms and waste, returning essential elements to ecosystems and maintaining the balance of the biosphere. Bacteria are the planet’s metabolic backbone - constantly transforming and rebalancing materials so that life can continue. For the industry, bacteria represent biotechnology as infrastructure: a shift from extractive chemistry to living systems that produce, purify, and recycle in one continuous process. They grow natural pigments, can be turned into vegan leather, films, or composites (fully biodegradable, and made without petroleum), and can be applied to degrade microplastics, detoxify wastewater, and convert textile residues into reusable biomolecules.

Mycelium generates its own structural cohesion as it grows (© Edie Lou)

From Mycelium to Material: Fungi as a Platform for Circular Materials

So, as we can see: algae produce, bacteria process but what do fungi do? Let’s dive deeper in the magical world of the amazing network and system of these creatures. Mushrooms (or more precisely, fungi) differ from algae and bacteria in how they process and relate to matter. Metabolically, fungi are heterotrophs, not producers. They require organic material produced by other organisms to survive - just like humans. While algae create biomass from CO2, water, and sunlight through photosynthesis and bacteria transform nutrients chemically, fungi break down complex organic materials - cellulose, lignin, even plastics - into simpler compounds that can be reused by other organisms. They transform waste into fertility. They decompose complex organic matter breaking it down into nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. These nutrients are then reabsorbed by plants and microorganisms, enriching the soil and feeding new growth. Structurally, fungi grow through mycelium, a vast filamentous network that acts as both organism and infrastructure. This decentralized growth pattern allows them to connect and exchange resources between species (trees, plants, soil), forming cooperative systems sometimes called the “wood wide web”.

But how do those magical creatures actually function? Well, fungi are a biological kingdom of their own - distinct from plants, animals, and bacteria. Scientists have formally described about 150,000 to 180,000 species of fungi. However, DNA sequencing and environmental sampling suggest the actual number may be around 6 million species worldwide. They are eukaryotic organisms, meaning their cells have nuclei (like ours do). But unlike plants, they do not perform photosynthesis - they can’t make energy from sunlight. Fungi produce energy through cellular respiration, just like animals do but unlike animals, they don’t ingest food; instead, they absorb nutrients externally. They secrete enzymes (biochemical catalysts) into their surroundings. These enzymes break down complex organic substances - like cellulose (from plants), lignin (from wood), keratin (from skin or hair), or even synthetic polymers in some cases - into smaller, soluble molecules such as simple sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids.

Fungi grow through microscopic threads called hyphae, which branch and extend in all directions as they seek nutrients. These hyphae collectively form a dense network called mycelium. As the mycelium grows, the hyphae secrete natural binding agents - primarily polysaccharides and proteins - that fuse particles in their environment together (such as sawdust, agricultural waste, or cellulose fibers). Over time, this network solidifies into a lightweight but strong composite material. Fungi - specifically mycelium, the thread-like root network - grow by spreading through whatever material they feed on. They don’t just grow randomly; they occupy space in three dimensions.

Not all fungi produce the visible fruiting bodies we commonly call mushrooms. In fact, only a fraction of fungal species develop these reproductive structures; many exist entirely as microscopic or filamentous networks. Fungi exist in many different forms. What most people think of as a “fungus” - the mushroom - is actually just the reproductive organ of certain species, produced for a short period to release spores. But fungi as a biological kingdom include a vast diversity of organisms - from molds, yeasts, endophytic fungi, plant symbionts, to pathogens and decomposers. Many of these never form mushrooms at all.

Why are mushrooms so important for the ecosystem? Well, they are absolutely essential to life on Earth - biologically, ecologically, and even industrially. Fungi are the planet’s primary decomposers. They break down dead plants, animals, and organic matter - substances that most other organisms can’t digest - and recycle them into nutrients that feed new life. Without fungi, fallen trees, leaves, and carcasses would accumulate endlessly, and essential elements like carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus would remain locked in waste. They complete nature’s nutrient cycle, making soil fertile and ecosystems self-sustaining. Over 90% of all plant species depend on fungi through relationships called mycorrhizae - intimate connections between plants roots and fungal networks. The mycorrhizal fungus delivers minerals, water, and nutrients from the soil to the plant, while the plant provides the fungus with sugars from photosynthesis. This relationship allows forests and crops to thrive even in poor soils. It’s an ancient, invisible partnership that literally built the biosphere.

Fungi regulate global carbon and climate cycles. They sustain medicine - antibiotics like penicillin, immunosuppressants, cholesterol-lowering drugs -, food - fermentation for bread, beer, cheese, soy, kombucha -, industrial enzymes - used in detergent, paper, and textiles. They are chemical factories for the biosphere - producing molecules no synthetic lab could invent.

The unique structure of mycelium - a dense, filamentous network of hyphae - can be cultivated under controlled conditions to form lightweight, durable, and compostable materials (© of the picture belongs to the rightful owner)

The Technological Turn

What does all this mean for the fashion industry - and why talk about fungi in a fashion context? At the first glance, the idea of fungi in fashion may sound misplaced - something better suited to food innovation. In many ways, for fashion, fungi are emerging as a cornerstone of industrial biotechnology, offering an alternative to the extractive systems that underpin both textiles and packaging. The unique structure of mycelium - a dense, filamentous network of hyphae - can be cultivated under controlled conditions to form lightweight, durable, and compostable materials. Through bioreactors and fermentation technologies, its growth parameters can be precisely engineered, making fungi a living manufacturing system. Fungi provide an excellent alternative to traditional materials - leather, polyester - that require extracting something from nature. Leather depends on animal agriculture, which contributes to methane emissions, chemical tanning pollution, and animal suffering, synthetics such as polyester are derived from fossil fuels, locking the industry into petrochemical dependence. Each of these production models takes from ecosystems and returns waste or harm.

Fungal materials, by contrast, can be cultivated on renewable or discarded biomass - agricultural residues, sawdust, or food waste. The organism digests these inputs and converts them into new matter, effectively transforming waste into resource. At the end of their life cycle, these materials biodegrade harmlessly, closing the loop. Rather than extracting from the planet, fungi operate through regeneration - restoring value to what has already been used. And unlike other plant-based alternatives, such as pineapple or cactus leather, for example, mycelium leather belongs to an entirely different category of material innovation: biofabrication. Pinatex (Pineapple leather), and other plant-based alternatives are often presented as sustainable innovations, yet they remain structurally dependent on fossil chemistry. The plant fibers - such as those from pineapple leaves - cannot naturally adhere to one another once processed; without a synthetic binder, they would separate and lose cohesion. To achieve durability and flexibility, manufacturers use petroleum-based resins or polyurethane coatings. The result is a hybrid material that reduces animal suffering but remains tied to fossil inputs and limited biodegradability.

By contrast, mycelium generates its own structural cohesion as it grows. Its branching hyphae weave into a continuous network, forming a natural polymer matrix that provides both strength and elasticity. No external binder is needed - form and structure emerge through the organism’s intrinsic growth logic, not through mechanical assembly or synthetic adhesion. From a technological perspective, fungi provide an unmatched combination of adaptability, scalability, and low energy demand. Mycelial materials grow at ambient temperatures, using agricultural by-products or organic waste as feedstock - drastically reducing the energy intensity and carbon footprint of production. Across the United States and Europe, mycelium has moved from experimental research into early-stage industrial production. Companies such as MycoWorks and Evocative in the U.S., and SQIM, the company behind both Mogu and EPHEA in Europe, are demonstrating how fungal growth can be scaled into commercially viable materials. These enterprises differ in focus - from leather alternatives and packaging foams to acoustic panels and textiles - but share a common principle: developing production systems that grow materials rather than extract resources. Mycelium materials are grown, not assembled, allowing design, manufacturing and regeneration to occur simultaneously.

Beyond textiles, fungi are reshaping the chemical and waste-processing infrastructure of fashion. Fungal enzymes are being developed to decompose polyester and polyurethane at the molecular level, solving one of the industry’s most intractable challenges: the recycling of blended fabrics. These enzymes, now supported under Horizon Europe’s circular-bioeconomy framework, can dissolve synthetic fibers without the need for thermal or chemical degradation, making closed-loop textile recovery commercially viable. In parallel, fungal pigments and binders offer non-toxic alternatives to conventional dyeing, which currently accounts for up to 20% of global water pollution. For the industry, the implications extend beyond sustainability into competitive positioning.

As regulatory frameworks tighten - from the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation to the upcoming Digital Product Passport - the ability to demonstrate traceable, low-impact innovation will define market access. Fungal biofabrication aligns directly with these policies while opening new business models based on localized production and regenerative growth. Fungal biotechnology converts sustainability from a reputational issue into an innovation economy - one defined by circular scalability, low energy input, and compliance readiness. Biofabrication aligns directly with the EU Green Deal, ESG reporting standards, and the global shift toward carbon accounting and extended producer responsibility. In this light, fungi are not a niche curiosity but a blueprint for the next industrial paradigm: positioning fungi as both a material and an industrial philosophy for the circular economy.

The Culture of Regeneration: Art, Science, and the Fungal Imagination

Beyond nature, laboratories, and industry, the Pilzfestspiele in Vienna reposition fungi as a cultural, economic, and philosophical framework - linking ecological intelligence to art, creative and technological innovation. The Pilzfestspiele are organized by MyPilz GmbH, a Vienna-based life-science company founded by Wolfgang Hinterdobler and René Lux, which bridges fungal research, biotechnology, and culture-transforming mycology from a scientific discipline into a collaborative public platform for innovation. They are currently held in Vienna and are a cross-disciplinary festival that brings together science, art, ecology, and economy through the lens of fungi. Held across multiple venues - including the Galerie OstLicht for Funga Foto Fest, the Wirtschaftskammer Wien (Chamber of Commerce) for Fungi Economy Day, the Auditorium of the University of Vienna for scientific talks, alongside additional sites across the city for screenings, workshops, and excursions.

The festival creates a citywide dialogue between science, design, business, and culture. Its diverse program includes exhibitions, lectures, workshops, field excursions, and innovation panels, each exploring fungi as models for resilience, collaboration, and circular systems. Rather than treating fungi as biological curiosities, the Pilzfestspiele present them as catalysts for transformation across sectors - from biotechnology and material science to art and education. Events such as Fungi Economy Day examine the potential of fungal systems in regenerative industry, while Funga Foto Fest and Scientific Impulses connect aesthetic perception with scientific research. Through citizen science projects, DNA sequencing labs, and entrepreneurial discussions, the festival dissolves traditional boundaries between disciplines. It positions fungi as mediators between ecology, art, education, and economy - living systems that model cooperation, aesthetics, regeneration, and sustainable innovation.

Among the participants, Maurizio Montalti outlined how mycelium-based production can replace extractive manufacturing by cultivating materials directly from organic residues. As the founder of SQUIM, he bridges the gap between experimental mycology and industrial production. His companies - MOGU, focused on architectural and interior surfaces, and EPHEA, dedicated to fashion applications - operate on the principle of replacing exploitative production models to regenerative cultivation systems. Together, they operate at the intersection of biotechnology, material science, and design. Their research focuses on how fungal mycelium can serve as a scalable biological matrix for creating structural materials. The process relies on controlled growth systems that allow the production of materials with defined density, strength, and elasticity, while reducing waste and minimizing chemical inputs. This work integrates biological growth mechanisms into industrial fabrication - achieving both material scalability and systemic regeneration - processes designed for continuous biological renewal. It is positioning fungi as operational components industrial biotechnology and not just as symbolic agents of sustainability.

Alongside industrial innovators such as SQIM, the Pilzfestspiele feature contributors like Wim van Egmond, whose microscopic photography renders fungi as intricate studies of structural intelligence, the way fungi organize and construct complexity without central control and captures the microscopic processes of decay and renewal with scientific precision; Stephen Axford and Catherine Marciniak, whose photography and cinematic documentation capture fungal growth as a choreography of time and transformation; and Barry Webb, whose macro imagery reveals the aesthetic complexity of decay and regeneration. Mycologist and activist Giuliana Furci adds yet another layer, connecting biological knowledge with social and political awareness through her advocacy for fungal conservation and recognition within global biodiversity frameworks.

Together, these perspectives demonstrate the festival’s depth and diversity. The Pilzfestspiele operate as a cultural ecosystem - a space where art, science, and industry co-evolve, revealing how fungi can serve as both material resource and conceptual guide for rethinking sustainability, design, and responsibility. What makes the festival remarkable is the ability to connect distinct forms of intelligence within a single cultural framework; scientific intelligence, artistic intelligence, entrepreneurial intelligence, and social intelligence. Visual artists reveal the hidden architectures of fungal life, transforming processes of decay and renewal into aesthetic experience. Scientists contribute through talks and public dialogues, translating complex research into accessible knowledge. At the same time, designers and entrepreneurs present fungal innovation as a viable material and economic practice, demonstrating how research can move from the laboratory into industry. Alongside these, workshops and citizen-science projects invite the public to participate directly - cultivating hands-on understanding through fungal cultivation. And, nevertheless, socially and culturally, the festival gives space to conservation initiatives linking these creative, economic, and scientific practices to broader ecological awareness. In its breadth, the festival becomes more than an event - it is a living ecosystem of practice, where art, science, and economy converge toward a regenerative future.

The Underpants Dress makes this dependency visible, linking culture, science, and design back to their shared material foundation (© Edie Lou)

Fungi, Soil, Fashion, and the Circular Mindset

Within this broader framework, the Pilzfestspiele provided the ideal platform to present and contextualize our ongoing collaboration on soil health and material transformation. The project found in the festival a setting where its ecological and cultural dimensions could be fully articulated - linking scientific inquiry with design practice and circular thinking.

The collaboration between soil ecologist Franz Bender and Edie Lou Studio began as an idea in 2021 - a shared interest in connecting soil science and fashion through a tangible experiment. At the time, the concept lacked a fitting framework. It took shape when Bender launched his Proof by Underpants project, an initiative that measures soil vitality by burying cotton underwear and observing its decomposition over time. The degree of decay reflects microbial and fungal activity, revealing the unseen processes that sustain life. From this research, the idea crystallized: to transform the decomposed textile samples into a garment - giving material form to the dialogue between biology and fashion.

The Underpants Dress emerged from this process - constructed from the remnants of buried cotton and framed as both an ecological and cultural statement. Its intention was twofold: to extend the scientific inquiry into another medium, and to address the question of waste within research itself. Each textile sample displayed the measurable effects of fungal colonization and bacterial biodegradation. The textile had become an archive of biological exchange, shaped by invisible communities of organisms performing decomposition and renewal. Rather than concealing these traces, the design, obviously, intentionally preserved them, allowing the garment to function as a visual and tactile record of the soil’s living system. The structural alterations - small perforations where hyphae had spread, stains produced by enzymatic activity, and textures left by microbial succession - revealed the interconnectedness of degradation and creation. In this sense, the dress was not simply made from decomposed fabric; it was made through decomposition itself, translating an ecological process into a material narrative.

Beyond its material composition, the dress serves as a symbolic commentary on the state of the fashion system itself. For decades, innovation in fashion has been defined by acceleration - faster production, digital optimization, and aesthetic novelty - rather than by systemic responsibility. Yet as environmental limits tighten, this model of progress has reached an inflection point. The Underpants Dress reflects the urgency of this transition: it visualizes the circular logic of living systems, where decomposition and renewal are part of the same continuum. It stands as a quiet argument against fashion’s throwaway model, suggesting that progress lies not in endless production, but in learning from the regenerative intelligence of living systems. A reminder that regeneration, not speed, must define the next stage of innovation.

The work also underscores the need for new material paradigms. Biological alternatives such as mycelium leather, algae-based fibers, and other biofabricated textiles demonstrate that circularity is technologically feasible. However, genuine transformation will depend not only on material substitution but on reduced consumption and a redefinition of value itself. Sustainability cannot rely on continuous production - it must be grounded in restraint, longevity, and respect for the living systems from which all materials originate.

At its core, the project is a reminder that our entire way of life - dear fashion industry you included - is inseparable from the health of the ground beneath it. Every living organism, every structure we build, and every system we create is subject to the same universal principles of exchange and renewal. We often forget that nature is not external to human life, but its very condition. The soil - sustained by microorganisms, fungi, and bacteria - forms the basis of all biological and material processes, the origin and endpoint of every cycle. Without it, there would be no regeneration, no sustenance, and no continuity of life. This is not a matter of opinion, but a universal law of interdependence - the same principle that governs equilibrium across ecosystems, matter, and astrophysical systems. Everything. The Underpants Dress makes this dependency visible, linking culture, science, and design back to their shared material foundation. Sustainability doesn’t start in campaigns or slogans nor in strategy decks or design trends, but in soil itself. There is no life - and obviously no fashion - without it.

The Pilzfestspiele - and Galerie OstLicht - provided the ideal framework and essential platform for this dialogue - a space where such intersections between ecology, art, and material innovation could be seen, discussed, and collectively reimagined. Their commitment to fostering exchange across disciplines made it possible for this collaboration to move beyond the wall of the studio, becoming part of a larger cultural conversation about what regeneration truly means. For making this exchange possible, thank you to the Pilzfestpiele, Galerie OstLicht, the Wirtschaftskammer Wien, and all participating institutions for helping this work take root beyond the atelier and scientific lab - and into the conversation where regeneration, especially in fashion, must begin: with the soil, the fungi, the living systems that sustains us, and the awareness that we are part of them. For all that they reach and restore: we love you, fungi.

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