Mushroom material does not work, shoe designer says
Footwear designer Paul Andrew, the former creative director of Salvatore Ferragamo, has said the mushroom-based alternatives to leather that he has tried do not work.
Mr Andrew launched his own footwear brand in 2012 before joining Salvatore Ferragamo in 2016. He worked first as the Italian brand’s design director for women’s footwear, then as the creative director of all of its women’s collections and then, from 2019, as the creative director of the whole group.
He left last year and, when a non-compete clause in his contact expired in October, began to work on a relaunch of his eponymous label.
On presenting the first collection of the revived Paul Andrew label to press in New York towards the end of March, the designer said materials deriving from mushroom were not durable enough for footwear uppers yet.
He said he had carried out tests on the material but found that stretching it across a last was enough to tear it. He said a product that was prone to damage as this was likely to be thrown away and was, therefore, not sustainable.
