Colorful textile dye that doesn't harm the environment: Fabulous Fungi proves it's possible

Ilse Kremer works with fungi that convert waste streams into color pigments

The textile and clothing industry is well-known for its polluting practices, from water contamination to the overuse of harmful chemicals. With her venture Fabulous Fungi, Ilse Kremer (26) is working on an alternative to textile dye. What started out as a graduation project grew into an ambitious circular start-up with its first clothing line and several awards to its name.

Ask any entrepreneur about their Why, and you will often get an answer that touches on a personal motive. This was the case for fashion designer Ilse Kremer. "Color in fashion is important to me. Both in my designs and in my daily life. I always dress in colorful clothes and don't want to ban color from my closet. I believe it shouldn’t be necessary."

During her fashion studies at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, Ilse learned about the negative impact of fashion. "The textile dyes that are widely used have an important part in this. It costs a lot of energy and water to make this dye, and contains harmful chemicals that pollute our waters." At the same time, she saw that there was also a growing criticism on a society-level against this industry and a growing demand for environmentally friendly alternatives. Ilse's personal motives became her professional driver: searching for an alternative to harmful textile dyes and raising awareness among consumers that these exist.

Collaborating with fungi

That search led Ilse to fungi. "There are numerous fungi that produce pigments via internal biochemical processes. These pigments form the basis of the Fabulous Fungi textile dye." The Fungi lab -one of four lab spaces in the BlueCity Lab- is where the magic happens. This is where Ilse grows the fungi, for which she uses waste streams from companies in the Rotterdam region. " You can think of food waste, but also waste water from a factory nearby. The residual streams we use are very diverse, and we are consciously expanding them. Should a stream go out of production, the continuity of the production process is not jeopardized."

Apart from energy and a relatively small amount of water, these residual streams are the only input material in the process. Unlike other companies that work with fungi, which often additionally use pure glucose. The fungi are the medium -or rather the collaborative partner- that convert the residual streams into color pigments. The bio-reactor in the lab is filled with a residual stream, to which a fungus is then added. Once enough color pigments are created, Ilse taps them out to make into paint dye. She leaves some of the liquid in the bio-elector behind and replenishes this with a new load of residual stream (or rather raw material); this allows the fungus to grow continuously. "If done right, the fungus doesn't die and you basically never need a new one. You can compare it to the starter for your sourdough bread that you keep in your refrigerator, to which you have to feed some sugar from time to time."

"For us, fungi are the medium -or really our collaborative partner- that convert waste streams into color pigments. These pigments form the basis of the Fabulous Fungi textile dye."
Ilse Kremer, Fabulous Fungi

From fashion designer to bio-designer

But how do you go from fashion designer to bio-designer? Let's take a small step back in time. " Thanks to Laura Luchtman and Ilfa Siebenhaar's project Living Colors, which involves working with living bacteria, I was introduced to the use of microorganisms for textile dyeing during my studies," says Ilse. It became the subject of her thesis research. By reading all kinds of research papers, she learned that fungi can produce pigments. Several scientists had already done research on this at a small level, on very small patches of fabric. "I decided to apply the same method to a larger garment; I wanted to make the large-scale application of fungi in textile dyeing and its value much more palatable."

At the time, Ilse was also taking an elective course in Biomimicry at the BlueCity Lab. Besides finding inspiration to continue pursuing biodesign and guidance for her graduate research, she also found her future workplace here. " Right away, I thought BlueCity was a really exciting environment to be in. Because of all that happens here, but also because it is very accessible to people like me. As an art academy student you are not easily admitted to laboratories. At BlueCity you actually are. The BlueCity Lab offers bio-designers all the space they need to work. That's why after I graduated I decided to sign a lease so I could start working on my business right away."

Being an entrepreneur in BlueCity

At the beginning of her entrepreneurial journey, Ilse's main focus in the BlueCity lab was research and development (R&D). " I was growing fungi, extracting pigment from them and producing paint dyes and dyeing textiles. I had to find out how the paint adheres to different fabrics, because there are big differences in that. On synthetic fabric, for example, it doesn't take." Coral, orange, red, yellow - she now has that figured out for a large number of colors, including the fungi that produce these color pigments. "We are currently working hard to expand our color palette so that we can produce all the primary colors and can start mixing colors."

The life of a starting entrepreneur consists of more than working on your product. It also means literature research and paperwork, as well as securing funding by applying for grants and meeting with investors. "I had no experience with this, that was not something I learned about in art school," Ilse says. " A rather complicated and complex part of entrepreneurship if you are completely new to it. Thankfully, BlueCity offers entrepreneurs guidance and support in this area. One-on-one, but also as part of BlueCity meet-ups, events and projects."

A pivotal moment for Ilse was the collaboration around an RVO application for circular chain projects in 2021. In such projects, entrepreneurs work together to make product or material chains circular. The application turned into a project around her start-up business plan: producing sustainable textile paint using fungi. "BlueCity helped write the application and put me in touch with key partners to launch the project, including Nick from Bio-aNAlytiX van Biezen, another entrepreneur in the building and the Fungi Lab's in-house expert, and sustainable clothing brand Iron Roots."

Last year, it resulted in the launch of her first clothing collection in collaboration with Iron Roots, which has since sold out. "That alone is of course a great signal: people are willing to pay for clothes colored with my dye. We also got great feedback from consumers through a survey. We learned that besides people who are aware of sustainability, the clothes were also bought by people who liked our story and wanted to see and wear the colors in real life." The collaboration with Nick van Biezen has also been ongoing since the project. "For the further development of my company, I can learn a lot from him: from researching new colors to continuing to scale up the production process."

Meer weten? Ketenproject Textielverf van Schimmels

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Recognition is great, but making impact is better

Asking for help at the right times and continually sharing her story: it has not only resulted in some great collaborations, but also a lot of recognition. From giving workshops during BlueCity events like Expedition BlueCity, Changez and Symbiosis to participating in panels during BlueCity meet-ups and meeting Her Majesty the Queen during her visit to BlueCity. She also regularly gets asked for interviews by radio and TV and to participate in exhibitions both nationally and abroad, including the Dutch Design Week and Milan Fashion Week.

"That recognition has been great, and really super important for Fabulous Fungi's visibility. But wanting to make an impact is why I do this." Which is why Ilse's ambition is to scale up further. "It's why I want to collaborate with market players who can help with funding. Unfortunately, larger brands often still consider this too high-risk, because they are unsure how the market will react to our dyes. Thanks to Iron Roots' trust in our product, I have been able to do market testing, which allows me to show companies more and more results. I really enjoy working with the bigger brands. It enables me to have more impact and connect more people to my story."