Hermès Opens 18th Artisan Workshop in France | MycoWorks Mushroom Leather Update

Will new Hermès leather workshop in Montereau, France create MycoWorks collab Victoria bag?

French luxury house Hermès celebrated a June opening of its 18th leather workshop in Montereau, France. Located in Seine-et-Marne, close to a tannery bought by the prestigious luxury brand in 1966, the new site is the brand’s 18th workshop dedicated to leather.

Rumor is that the new workshop will produce the groundbreaking, autumn/winter 2021 Hermès Victoria, made from Sylvania, in a joint project with MycoWorks. (See details below.) AOC cannot confirm this rumor.

The new workshop “draws on the expertise and proximity of the group’s Ile-de-France craft centre, which houses 670 artisans,” wrote the brand in a press release. When it opened on June 11, the new project employed about 120 people, with plans to eventually employ 260. Hermès is working with the Greta adult training centre, and the Flora Tristan de Montereau high school, in order to recruit locally.

Under the requirements of its commitment to sustainability, Hermès has rehabilitated an industrial wasteland measuring 7.2 hectares. and has planted over 200 trees as well as thousands of scrubs in the garden adjacent to the factory.

In American-speak, 1 hectare is the size of almost 2 football fields. The site is also equipped with 250 square metres of hybrid solar panels and full LED lighting, according to the brand.

"We favor the rehabilitation of an industrial wasteland rather than the urbanization of green areas", explains Emmanuel Pommier, general manager of the Hermès leather goods and saddlery craft division of the group.

Are there projects comparable to this one in America? We are thinking, thinking, thinking. So far, brain is empty but we’re working on it.

AOC references our spring article on the exciting new project between MycoWorks — a US company headquartered in California and Hermès, creating a new biomaterial made of mushrooms.

MycoWorks: The Making of Reishi™️ Fine Mycelium™️

An exciting, exclusive collaboration by Hermès and MycoWorks is birthing a new material Sylvania, a hybrid of nature and biotechnology that represents a new generation of biotech materials. The patented innovation is made with Fine Mycelium, sounding much more sophisticated and expensive than mushroom leather.

MycoWorks announced in November 2020 that it had raised $45 million in series B financing, in tandem with the opening of a major new ‘Reishi’ plant in Emeryville, California.

“We could not imagine a better partner than Hermès to present our first object made of Fine Mycelium. Hermès and MycoWorks share common values of craftsmanship, quality, innovation, and patience,” says Matt Scullin, MycoWorks CEO on the company’s website.

Hermès turned to its Victoria bag as the structural canvas for the unveiling of the exciting collaboration.

Pierre-Alexis Dumas, Hermès Artistic Director, says:

“MycoWorks’ vision and values echo those of Hermès: a strong fascination with natural raw material and its transformation, a quest for excellence, with the aim of ensuring that objects are put to their best use and that their longevity is maximized. With Sylvania, Hermès is at the heart of what it has always been: innovation in the making.”

Watch the inspiring video of the making of ‘Reishi’, the generic name of the transformational product, which ended up transformed into ‘Sylvania’ before being sent to Hermès workshops in France where is was tanned, finished and shaped by Hermès craftspeople. It’s very exciting to watch the cast of characters who came together around this innovation breakthrough.

Note that MycoWorks uses only plant-based dyes and chromium-free chemicals in the dyeing and tanning processes. Reishi is entirely biodegradable and less toxic to much less toxic to the environment than bovine leathers and plastic alternatives. Because mycelium can be grown in molds to specific shapes, there is little to no waste.

Three types of Reishi have been tested: Brown Natural, Brown Natural High Strength, and Black Emboss.

Hermès intends to bring the new Victoria bag to market towards the end of 2021.