A dress made of living mycelium that repairs itself

Researchers in China have built a textile from living mycelium that is self-cleaning, close to self-repairing, and can be coloured or made UV-resistant by adding other fungi or yeast. The work comes out of the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, led by Ke Li. The material is a prototype dress, made together with the Berlin-based material company Peelsphere.

The material is what researchers call an engineered living material. This is a build built off living organisms that stay active after they are formed into a final shape. That is the key difference from most mycelium products today, which dry and effectively kill the fungus to make a stable, non-growing packaging or leather substitute. Here the fungus stays in a low-metabolic, dormant state.

Ke Li and her team work with cordyceps militaris, a fungus kept dormant after being dried at 45 degrees. A living sheet forms the base. That base can then take on extra abilities. Colour comes from co-culturing brewer's yeast, which gives a self-pigmented blue. UV resistance comes from aspergillus niger fungus. Both are simply mixed in at the start and grown together, with no genetic engineering needed.

Repair works by feeding the material. Apply a nutrient solution of potato water over a hole, add a small patch of fresh fungus, and the dormant mycelium germinates. New filaments grow out across the gap and seal the surface without glue or stitching. The material is naturally hydrophobic too, so it sheds water and stays clean on its own.

The team describe the system in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances, calling it a programmable fungal platform. Mycelium is treated like a modular system, where the sheet is the base structure and extra biological functions plug in like add-ons. They argue this gets textiles and architecture closer to the real promise of engineered living materials.

Where it could be used is still limited. Li names conceptual fashion, accessories, decorative textiles, exhibition pieces and biodegradable packaging. Durable, moisture-safe clothing or permanent architecture would need further work on strength, safety and consistency. The dress is a demonstration of what the material can feel and look like, not a finished everyday garment. It is a clear look at a material that stays alive after it is made.