时尚的未来——由蘑菇制成

你的衣橱里可能装满了各种材料——皮革、棉、尼龙和聚酯，仅举几例——它们会导致时尚的可持续发展危机。生物材料研究员 Dan Widmaier 解释了我们如何从大自然中寻找这些常用材料的可持续替代品，并介绍了一种由蘑菇制成的皮革替代品，它看起来很棒并且不会损害环境。“我们可以让时尚可持续发展，我们将用科学来做到这一点，”Widma ...

I'm a proud lifelong nerd, and I have a PhD in chemistry and chemical biology to prove it, which is why I never thought I'd be that guy standing up here, talking about my love affair with fashion.

我是一个自豪的终生书呆子， 我拥有化学和化学生物学博士学位来证明这一点， 这就是为什么我从没想过我会成为那个站在这里 谈论我对时尚的热爱的人。

And there's someone else in my life who's equally shocked by this turn of events, and that's my wonderful wife, who literally has a degree in fashion.

在我的生活中还有其他人 同样对这一事件的转变感到震惊， 那就是我出色的妻子， 她确实拥有时尚学位。

But here I am, standing with these two wallets. One of these is made out of leather, one of these is made out of mushrooms.And I'm not going to tell you which one is which. The average consumer can't tell you the difference -- kind of the whole point.Because even if you hate fashion, you've got an entire room in your house devoted to it. It's called your closet. And your closet is full of all kinds of materials -- cotton, leather, nylon, polyester --that list goes on and on. And those materials matter, because those materials are the reason fashion is in the midst of a sustainability crisis. This is an industry that makes 100 billion plus items per year.

但我在这里，拿着这两个钱包站着。 其中一种是用皮革制成的， 其中一种是用蘑菇制成的。 我不会告诉你哪个是哪个。 普通消费者无法告诉您其中的区别—— 这就是重点。 因为即使你讨厌时尚， 你的房子里也有一整个房间专门用于时尚。 它叫做你的衣橱。 你的衣橱里堆满了各种各样的材料—— 棉花、皮革、尼龙、聚酯—— 这个清单还在继续。 这些材料很重要， 因为这些材料是 时尚处于可持续发展危机中的原因。 这是一个每年生产超过 1000 亿件商品的行业。

When I started my journey, I thought this was going to be a really easy answer. We just consume less, we have fewer, better things.But in the last decade, I've come to believe that ignores fundamental realities of both fashion and human nature. You see, fashion is not purely functional. It's about confidence, creativity, self-expression. It's a pure reflection of our innate desire, as humans, to always want more. And it satisfies our insatiable appetites to discover, buy, collect, show off. In truth, fashion is intrinsic to who we are.

当我开始我的旅程时，我认为这将是一个非常简单的答案。 我们只是消耗更少， 我们拥有更少，更好的东西。 但在过去的十年里，我开始相信这忽略 了时尚和人性的基本现实。 你看，时尚不仅仅是功能性的。 它关乎自信、创造力和自我表达。 这是我们与生俱来的渴望的纯粹反映，作为人类， 总是想要更多。 它满足了我们发现、购买、收藏、炫耀的贪得无厌的欲望。 事实上，时尚是我们所固有的。

There is a piece of good news, though. We can make fashion sustainable, and we're going to do it with science, and we're going to do it not by changing the humans, but by changing those materials themselves. And lucky for us, the answers to all of fashion's materials problems are available today, out there in nature, and it's our job, as scientists, to go find the best inventions from nature's four-billion-year catalog of greatest hitsand bring them to the world of design.

不过，有一个好消息。 我们可以让时尚变得可持续， 我们将通过科学来做到这一点， 我们不会通过改变人类来做到这一点， 而是通过改变这些材料本身来做到这一点。 对我们来说幸运的 是，今天所有时尚材料问题的答案都可以在自然界中 找到，作为科学家，我们的工作是从大自然 40 亿年最热门的目录中找到最好的发明并带来它们到设计的世界。

So I started a PhD, and I actually fell in love with one of these materials from nature. And it's this -- it's spider silk. It's this fine, elegant, tough fiber that spiders make. You've probably seen a Spider-Man movie, you know. You may have wanted to make Peter Parker's web slinger. It's OK -- I did, too; it's badass. I wanted to recreate that material in a lab, so I started a company, and we did just that. And the very first product we made was this: a tie. I took the very first tie, and I sent it to Stan Lee himself,cocreator of Spider-Man, idol to nerds around the planet, all-around amazing human. And he loved it. He actually cold-called my phone from a blocked number, and we geeked out over the technology.

所以我开始攻读博士学位， 实际上我爱上了其中一种来自大自然的材料。 就是这个——它是蜘蛛丝。 蜘蛛制造的正是这种精细、优雅、坚韧的纤维。 你可能看过蜘蛛侠电影，你知道的。 您可能想制作彼得帕克的网络吊索。 没关系——我也是；这太糟糕了。 我想在实验室里重新制作那种材料， 所以我创办了一家公司，我们就是这样做的。 我们制作的第一个产品是： 领带。 我拿了第一条领带，然后把它寄给了斯坦李本人， 他是蜘蛛侠的共同创造者，是地球上书呆子的偶像， 全能的了不起的人类。 他喜欢它。 他实际上是用一个被屏蔽的号码打给我的电话， 我们对这项技术大发雷霆。

And back in those days, almost nobody was working on sustainable materials in fashion. So I excitedly ran off to go talk to designers and fashion executives. And they thought this was fine, cool, but they couldn't shut up about their problem with leather. And for really good reason. Leather is one of the most pivotal materials in the fashion world. In 2020 alone, the five biggest European luxury houses sold over 50 billion dollars of leather goods. And the challenge with leather is that today, it's inextricably linked to raising cows, and not just a few -- like, lots of cows. And cows, at the global scale, are terrible for our environmental future.

在那个年代， 几乎没有人致力于时尚界的可持续材料。 所以我兴奋地跑去和设计师和时尚高管交谈。 他们认为这很好，很酷， 但他们不能对皮革问题闭嘴。 并且有很好的理由。 皮革是时尚界最重要的材料之一。 仅在 2020 年，欧洲最大的五家奢侈品公司就 卖出了超过 500 亿美元的皮具。 皮革面临的挑战 是，今天，它与饲养奶牛有着千丝万缕的联系， 而不仅仅是少数——比如很多奶牛。 在全球范围内，奶牛对我们的环境未来是可怕的。

And so I left this conversation thinking, "OK, what makes leather leather?" And the truth is, nobody loves leather because it comes from a cow. We love it because it's strong, it's soft, it's beautiful. It plays from the runway in Paris to a rodeo in Texas. So if we can take cows out of the equation, what's the thing we have to replicate to make a great material like leather? And the answer is microstructure.

所以我离开这个谈话想， “好吧，皮革是什么？” 事实是， 没有人喜欢皮革，因为它来自牛。 我们喜欢它，因为它坚固、柔软、美丽。它从巴黎的跑道到德克萨斯州的牛仔竞技表演。 因此，如果我们可以将奶牛排除在外， 那么我们必须复制哪些东西才能制造出像皮革这样的优质材料？ 答案是微观结构。

So this is a microscope image of the collagen in cowhide. And it looks like a mess, it's just this jumble of fibers mixed together. At its essence, that structure is why leather is both pliable and strong. Now, contrast that to your closet. All those materials are what we call knits or wovens. They look like this under a microscope. Essentially, you take a single thread, and you loop it around itself, or you crisscross it over itself, and you make a fabric. If we want to make a new material with the same amazing properties as leather, we need to go out and find a natural material with the same microstructure as the collagen in cowhide.

这是一张牛皮中胶原蛋白的显微镜图像。 它看起来像一团糟， 只是这些混杂在一起的纤维。 从本质上讲，这种结构就是皮革既柔韧又坚固的原因。 现在，将其与您的壁橱进行对比。 所有这些材料都是我们所说的针织物或机织物。 它们在显微镜下看起来像这样。 从本质上讲，你取一根线，然后把它绕在自己周围， 或者你把它交叉在自己身上，然后你就制作了一块织物。 如果我们想制造一种 与皮革具有同样惊人性能的新材料， 我们需要走出去寻找一种 与牛皮中的胶原蛋白具有相同微观结构的天然材料。

Now, my brain gets going with this, and I think, "OK, we can grow skin, we can grow pure collagen, we can use plant fibers ..."Those all fail. Quality, cost or scalability reasons tank those ideas.

现在，我的大脑开始思考这个问题， 我想，“好吧，我们可以长出皮肤，我们可以长出纯胶原蛋白， 我们可以使用植物纤维……” 这些都失败了。 质量、成本或可扩展性的原因会阻碍这些想法。

And that's what brought me to the world of fungi. I'm going to assume you all know what mushrooms are. I'm going to show you some mushrooms on the side of a dead tree. And I'm much more interested in what's happening just beneath the surface. Inside that tree are millions of stringy little strands that are called mycelium, that are eating away at it. They look like this. So you see those white fibrous roots underneath the mushroom -- those are mycelium. They’re these long branch networks. And what they're doing is eating dead stuff in the soil and releasing nutrients to the mushroom and to the ecosystem around it. And so now, I'm going to show you side by side. Collagen on the left, mycelium on the right. We're looking at microstructure; I'm saving you six years of getting a PhD.

这就是把我带到真菌世界的原因。 我假设你们都知道蘑菇是什么。我要给你看一棵死树旁边的蘑菇。 我 对表面之下发生的事情更感兴趣。 在那棵树里面有数百万条 被称为菌丝体的细小线， 它们正在吞噬它。 他们看起来像这样。 所以你看到蘑菇下面的那些白色须根—— 那些是菌丝体。 它们是这些长分支网络。 他们正在做的是吃掉土壤中的死 物，并向蘑菇及其周围的生态系统释放养分。 所以现在，我将并排向你展示。 左边是胶原蛋白，右边是菌丝体。 我们正在研究微观结构； 我为你节省了六年的博士学位。

We're on to something here. But to pull this off, we need to do this at the scale of fashion. We need a lot of mycelium. Not a lab, but a factory. So that's exactly what we did.

我们在这里做点什么。 但要做到这一点， 我们需要在时尚的规模上做到这一点。 我们需要大量的菌丝体。不是实验室，而是工厂。 这正是我们所做的。

So here, what you're seeing is our first factory, and you're seeing rows and rows of pure mycelium growing in these trays. And those mycelium are eating leftover sawdust, so they're doing what fungi do best in nature -- they eat something nobody wants, and they turn it into something useful. And instead of growing into the soil, these mycelium are growing up in these big puffy clouds that we can easily harvest. And this is where science has to meet design. We take that material and turn it into something leatherlike. It has to be beautiful, has to be functional.And designers need to be able to easily incorporate it into the world of fashion products.

所以在这里，你看到的是我们的第一家工厂， 你会看到一排排纯菌丝体 在这些托盘中生长。 那些菌丝体正在吃剩下的锯末， 所以它们在做真菌在自然界中最擅长的事情—— 它们吃掉没人想要的东西，然后把它变成有用的东西。 这些菌丝体不是在土壤中生长，而是在这些蓬松的大云中生长 ，我们可以很容易地收获。这就是科学必须满足设计的地方。我们采用这种材料并将其变成类似皮革的东西。它必须是美丽的，必须是功能性的。设计师需要能够轻松地将其融入时尚产品的世界。

The first prototypes were none of those things. But after many thousands of iterations, we have a material, and we call it Mylo.And Mylo does everything we set out for it. It's beautiful, it's functional, but most importantly, it's sustainable. So when you grow mushrooms, it takes about a little under one square meter of land to grow one kilogram of mushrooms. Contrast that to cows -- takes about 97 square meters of land to grow one kilogram of cow. And when we're growing Mylo, we're doing this in high-density vertical agriculture, and we power it with 100 percent renewable energy.

第一个原型不是那些东西。 但是经过数千次迭代， 我们有了一种材料，我们称之为 Mylo。 Mylo 完成了我们为之设定的一切。 它很漂亮，很实用， 但最重要的是，它是可持续的。 所以当你种植蘑菇时， 种植一公斤蘑菇需要大约不到一平方米的土地。 与奶牛相比——种植一公斤奶牛需要大约 97 平方米的土地。当我们种植 Mylo 时，我们在高密度垂直农业中这样做，我们使用 100% 可再生能源为其提供动力。

And this is technology. We're constantly getting better. Contrast that to the cow. It's about as good as it's going to get, and the cows really don't like it when you stack them up in high-density vertical agriculture.

这就是技术。 我们不断变得更好。与牛形成鲜明对比。 它几乎和它所能得到的一样好， 当你把它们堆放在高密度的垂直农业中时，奶牛真的不喜欢它。

And so the question remains: How are we going to distribute this material at global scale to meet the moment? I have bad news for you here. Historically, it takes decades for a new material to reach global-scale adoption. Take spandex, that stretchy fiber.It's in your blue jeans, your yoga pants. Makes your butt look amazing. That material was invented in the 1950s, and it wasn't until the athleisure megatrend 50 years later that it was truly everywhere on this planet. And thank you, climate change -- we humans don't have 50 years to wait. We need to solve this problem. We need new materials, and we need them now. And this is where fashion can be transformational.

所以问题仍然存在： 我们将如何在全球范围内分发这些材料 以应对这一时刻？ 我在这里要告诉你一个坏消息。 从历史上看，一种新材料需要几十年 才能在全球范围内采用。 以氨纶为例，即有弹性的纤维。 它在你的蓝色牛仔裤，你的瑜伽裤里。 让你的臀部看起来很棒。 这种材料是在 1950 年代发明的， 直到 50 年后运动休闲大趋势 才真正在这个星球上无处不在。 谢谢你，气候变化—— 我们人类没有 50 年的等待时间。 我们需要解决这个问题。 我们需要新材料，我们现在就需要它们。 这就是时尚可以变革的地方。

So I went out and constructed what we call the Mylo Consortium.These are fashion brands you know. Stella McCartney, lululemon, Kering and Adidas. Normally, fashion brands are renowned for their competitive nature and their desire for exclusivity. But I was able to convince these brands that no one group can solve this problem alone. And to meet this moment, it was time to act in collaboration instead of competition. We did just that. With the idea that we're going to solve this really big problem really fast.And here's a taste of how they're supporting Mylo. Lululemon wove Mylo into yoga and wellness accessories. Celebrity environmentalist Paris Jackson modeled Mylo in this fashion editorial. Adidas redesigned the Stan Smith -- it's their most iconic style -- with Mylo. And Stella McCartney designed the Frayme Mylo handbag, and debuted it on the Paris runway. And that little black handbag that you see right there, that's now part of Stella's commercial collection. And what that means is that this is not some far-off idea that's a dream that may one day be real.Mylo's commercially viable today. We sell it for 30 dollars a square foot. It's about the price of premium calf leather.

所以我出去建立了我们所谓的 Mylo Consortium。 这些都是你知道的时尚品牌。 Stella McCartney、lululemon、开云和阿迪达斯。通常，时尚品牌以其竞争性质 和对排他性的渴望而闻名。 但我能够说服这些品牌 ，没有任何一个团体可以单独解决这个问题。 为了迎接这一时刻， 是时候合作而不是竞争了。 我们就是这样做的。 我们的想法是，我们将很快解决这个非常大的问题。 以下是他们如何支持 Mylo 的体验。 Lululemon 将 Mylo 编织成瑜伽和健康配饰。名人环保主义者巴黎杰克逊 在这篇时尚社论中模仿 Mylo。 阿迪达斯与 Mylo 一起重新设计了 Stan Smith—— 这是他们最具标志性的款式。 Stella McCartney 设计了 Frayme Mylo 手袋，并在巴黎 T 台上首次亮相。你看到的那个黑色小手提包，现在是 Stella 商业系列的一部分。这意味着这不是一个遥远的想法，它是一个有朝一日可能成为现实的梦想。Mylo 今天在商业上是可行的。我们以每平方英尺 30 美元的价格出售。这是关于优质小牛皮的价格。

And this -- this is the tipping point. This is the first tangible proof that the future of fashion can and will be made with sustainable materials. And this is our road map. We went looking to nature for a better alternative to leather, and we found that mycelium. It was hiding in plain sight. And this story, Mylo's story, is just one small example in a much broader movement. It's the one I know. But in the last few years, countless scientists have joined us in this journey of a sustainable materials revolution. And in the coming years, I think we're going to see amazing advances that replace all the harmful materials in your closet, in your home and your car.And my hope is that, by sharing this journey with Mylo, it can act as a blueprint that these others can follow to more quickly improve this world for all of us.

而这——这就是转折点。 这是第一个有形的证据，证明时尚的未来可以并且将会由可持续材料制成。 这是我们的路线图。 我们去大自然寻找更好的皮革替代品， 我们发现了菌丝体。 它藏在了众目睽睽之下。 而这个故事，Mylo 的故事， 只是更广泛运动中的一个小例子。 这是我认识的那个。 但在过去几年中， 无数科学家加入了我们 的可持续材料革命之旅。 在接下来的几年里， 我认为我们会看到惊人的进步 ，取代你衣橱里的所有有害材料， 在你的家里和你的车里。 我希望，通过与 Mylo 分享这段旅程， 它可以作为其他人可以遵循的蓝图， 为我们所有人更快地改善这个世界。

Because in my heart, I'm still that nerd from the beginning, and I want to know what else is hiding out there in nature. I want to know what's the number-one spot on the best-of playlist from four billion years of evolution. And the incredible part of all this is that fashion undoubtedly compounded our sustainability crisis.But fashion has a golden opportunity to lead the charge, to live with nature, instead of against it. And now, and in the future,fashion's not just about making yourself beautiful. It's also about making this planet beautiful and livable for generations.

因为在我心里， 从一开始我还是那个书呆子， 我想知道大自然中还隐藏着什么。 我想知道在 40 亿年的演变过程中，最佳播放列表中的第一名是什么。 而这一切令人难以置信的是，时尚无疑加剧了我们的可持续发展危机。但时尚有一个千载难逢的机会来引领潮流，与自然共处，而不是反对它。现在和未来，时尚不仅仅是让自己变得美丽。这也是为了让这个星球变得美丽宜居，世代相传。