A dress inspired by the stench of rotting meat and animal faeces courtesy of the aptly named stinkhorn mushroom may be a stretch too far even for the most dedicated follower of fashion.
However, teamed with a Stella McCartney handbag made from fungi roots, and with a supporting cast of sculptures, installations and performances, the unusual dress takes centre stage in a new wide-ranging exhibition which celebrates our fascination with fungi.
Spanning contemporary art, futurist design, fashion, music, performance and illustrations, Fungi Forms at Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, explores how the magical world of mushrooms and other fungi has an additional string to its bow, as artists' muse.
Part of the Edinburgh Art Festival, it includes fungi-inspired installations and contemporary artworks, a mushroom atlas which reveals the kaleidoscopic of colours found within the fungi kingdom, plus a range of fashion and design pieces that highlight the use of new mycelium-based materials as alternatives to leather and plastics.
Among the exhibits that explore how fungi plays a role as inspiration in fashion and design, are ethereal dresses from Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen.
Unveiled at Paris Haute Couture Week 2021, her Roots of Rebirth collection features ethereal dresses with details that take inspiration from the world of fungi such as the flimsy gills of a mushroom created using fine fabrics, and hand-embroidered ‘roots’.
Also featuring in the exhibition is Stella McCartney’s Frayme Mylo™️, the world's first-ever luxury bag crafted from mycelium – the root-like structures of fungi.
The material is created by growing mycelium in a vertical farming facility powered by 100% renewable energy which is then transformed it into a material that looks and feels like animal leather.
The designer said: “If we want to save all our skins from the consequences of the climate and biodiversity crises, we need to stop fashion’s use of animal leather and furs.
“From material innovation to medicine, the potential of fungi for good is limitless and this is something I am excited to both celebrate and educate on through this exhibition.”
While in contrast to the bag’s classic lines is one of the event’s most striking exhibits - the dress created by artist Siôn Parkinson and designed by Matty Bovan which was inspired by the pungent whiff of the stinkhorn mushroom.
The stinkhorn, which is also the focus of a series of performances and music installations, mimics the smell of decaying flesh and dung in order to attract flies which help disperse its spores.
The dress features ‘slime’ replicated by expanding foam, felt which echoes animal pelt and fabric swatches which refer to the stinkhorn mushroom.
RBGE Artist in residence Siôn Parkinson said: “For those who haven’t smelled it, the stinkhorn mushroom has a very strong smell. It's very powerful. It's quite savoury. It's been described as nauseating, repulsive of the devil himself of rotten Limburger cheese. Of sperm, rotten turnips, rotten radish.
“With the Stinkhorn Dress, people can get a sense of it without the stench of it.”
The exhibition also features the work of botanical artists from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Collection which show the beauty of fungi’s colours and shapes, and textile artist Amanda Cobbett’s intricate detailed fungi sculptures which capture their magic in 3D forms.
Fungi artist and designer Julie Beeler’s Mushroom Colour Atlas reveals the universe of 825 different colours lurking inside fungi. While The Aromatic Wheel of Fungi by artists Willoughby Arevalo and Isabelle Kirouac offers an olfactory adventure into the diversity of smells found in mushrooms.
The immersive installation includes 300 smell descriptors and fresh mushrooms displayed on a matsutake sculpture.
Amy Porteous, Creative Programmes Producer at Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh said: “The world of fungi has sparked the imagination of creatives ever since they were first discovered.
“As scientists learn more about these incredible organisms, their potential uses in everything from fashion to design and engineering are more than we could have ever imagined.
“This exhibition taking over Inverleith House and spilling into the Garden captures the artistic inspiration, design innovation and botanical wonder of the fascinating world of fungi.”
Fungi Forms is at Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from August 2 until December 8, admission is free.
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