Katie Fitzhenry
She/Her
My practice combines traditional Japanese techniques, waste streams, and biomaterial experimentation to explore new aesthetics and material futures for fashion.
She/Her
Washi, Waste and Mycelium explores how contemporary waste streams can be transformed into valuable textile materials through traditional Japanese craft and emerging biomaterial design. Drawing inspiration from techniques including Kamiko and Shifu, the project combines spent coffee grounds, unrecyclable paper waste, and discarded fibres with mycelial growth to investigate new possibilities for fashion materials.
Guided by the philosophies of Mottainai and Wabi-sabi, the work embraces slow making, material awareness, and appreciation of imperfection. Mycelium is explored as a natural reinforcer that strengthens and transforms waste-based structures, allowing material qualities, texture, and form to emerge through growth. Waste remains visible within the final outcomes, reflecting changing aesthetics in fashion influenced by sustainability and zero-waste design.
By bringing together heritage craft, biological growth, and contemporary waste streams, the project proposes an alternative approach to fashion materiality – one that values process, transformation, and the overlooked potential of discarded materials.
