'Mushroom dress' created by Dutch textile designer Aniele Hoitink. Courtesy Aniela Hoitink / Neffa

At first glance Dutch textile designer Aniele Hoitink’s ‘Mushroom Dress’ looks to be made of some kind of light tissue lame or crushed sheer, but mushrooms? What’s next!?

Known as ‘muskin’, this leather like material is made from spores extracted from the upper button or ‘hat’ of the phellinus ellipsoideus mushroom through a process similar used for animal leather but without the use of tanning toxins or other chemicals, making it 100% natural. In addition to the material from the hat, the fleshy underpart, or root of the mushroom yields a fine, thread-like fabric of cells called mycelium. Found in several other variety of mushrooms, this wearable fiber has been weaved to create everything from clothing to accessories.