By Christian F. Janssen — 2nd August 2019

The funguses form the third great kingdom of eukaryotic creatures beside the animals and plants. Some are poisonous, some are edible and partially tasty. These mysterious creatures inspired the Beirut fashion designer Tony Ward to the couture collection for fall and winter of 2019/2020. The myriad shapes of mushrooms induced him to introduce three-dimensional printed garments. The eccentric volumes of the dresses represented the spongy caps, while thousands of layers of folded silk organza looked like the gills. Fil‑coupé embroidery and silk embroidery followed the threadlike mycelial structure. The colour palette, which included white, madder red, walnut brown and sky blue, led into the undergrowth of the forest. As a whole, the collection “BLOSSOMING FIBERS”, shown in the Paris hotel “InterContinental” on 1st July 2019, blossomed like a sea of mushrooms in the forest.