From fungi to fabric: eco-friendly fashion

DW (English)

Researcher Annah-Ololade Sangosanya produces artificial leather from mushrooms. Her vision — creating clothing from an organic material that can repair itself.

Transcript

00:00Fashion made from living organisms?

00:03Anna Olola de Chogosonia is doing just that.

00:06She's made this jacket out of fungus.

00:09I'm actually quite proud, yes indeed, of this.

00:12It was kind of a big challenge that I took.

00:15Anna's fungus leather is waterproof and biodegradable.

00:19Her vision is of an intelligent material

00:21that can heal itself like a living organism.

00:24But more on that later.

00:26At the Brussels Free University,

00:28the bioengineer shows us how she creates the organic textiles.

00:32So this is a mycelium skin.

00:35So this is basically only mushroom.

00:39It's ready to be harvested.

00:41So I just grew it on the liquid surface

00:43and now I'm just like taking it out

00:45so that we can make a material out of it later.

00:48It all started in this petri dish.

00:51In her lab, Anna reproduces the underground root system

00:54of the mycelium fungus which normally grows in the woods.

00:57The tiny threads grow and weave themselves together

01:01into this artificial leather skin in just three weeks.

01:04I'm always excited to harvest the skin

01:10and trying to see, like, did anything different happen

01:14from the previous times, trying to understand why.

01:17And I actually really like these very hands-on parts.

01:21Yeah, just touching and getting my hands dirty.

01:26She separates the skin from its jelly layer,

01:29a bit like separating real leather from its fat.

01:32The surface has to be even and smooth

01:35in order to make clothing out of it later.

01:38I'm treating the skin with some natural product,

01:43it's called glycerol, in order to keep it flexible.

01:46Just like a leaf, if it falls and it dies,

01:49it becomes brittle and very dry.

01:51And that's the same kind of thing that will happen to the skin

01:54if I don't add this product to it.

01:57I just wanted to keep it flexible and fresh,

01:59like if it were alive.

02:01The key word is alive.

02:04Anna's vision goes even further.

02:06Imagine you rip your jacket

02:07and it has some dormant units in there

02:10that can revive in a structured way

02:12so that it just repairs the wounds.

02:14That would be one of our goals

02:16and that's something that is currently being researched.

02:19Her idea of making clothing out of living fungi

02:22has gained Anna international recognition.

02:24Her fungus jacket was exhibited at Milan Design Week in 2025,

02:28introducing her invention to a wider audience.

02:32It's important to make things that are aesthetically pleasing

02:35or that have like a specific aesthetic

02:37so that people start thinking,

02:39oh wow, this is a new material

02:41but this is how it could be used.

02:44It could look good and it's also biodegradable.

02:47Professor Elisa Elzaka is supervising Anna's project.

02:53I'm super proud about Anna

02:55because it's really where that a scientist

03:00moves into a completely different other field

03:04which is design

03:06and she was able to really do that transition

03:09to bring it to a design exhibition

03:11which is like super renowned.

03:14So where does Anna's boundless motivation come from?

03:18The young French Nigerian woman knows firsthand

03:21how much of Europe's discarded clothing

03:23ends up in West African landfills.

03:28Instead of having a linear thing

03:30where you produce something that never degrades

03:33and then you just end up having it in the landfill,

03:35you biosource it, you use it

03:37and then it biodegrades and gets back to nature.

03:42At home, Anna works on new designs.

03:45But getting here wasn't easy.

03:47Her parents wanted her to study something serious,

03:50bioengineering.

03:51Today, her creations combine science and fashion.

03:59Now that I think about it,

04:00I'm super happy of where I have come.

04:04I'm very happy to go to work every day.

04:06That's a very privileged position.

04:09And that's also the advantage of being at the intersection

04:14of two domains that are so different,

04:16like biology and design.

04:19I get to do some things that are very niche

04:21and that's something that I really love.

04:24Although her fashion is not yet ready for mass production,

04:27Anna's journey proves that the future of fashion

04:30can be sustainable and innovative as well as stylish.

04:34I'll be right back.

04:35I'll be right back.

04:36Bye.

04:37Bye.

04:38Bye.

04:39Bye.

04:40Bye.

04:41Bye.

04:42Bye.

04:43Bye.

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