One of the things I regret in my life is not buying a pair of Stella McCartney mushroom leather shoes at a TJ Max shop in Berlin. The price was within reach and they looked and felt so sturdy and iconic. All of us may have more chances to dance in sustainable style as Stella McCartney, the sustainable fashion icon and daughter of Paul McCartney, is working again with the fast fashion label H&M. Fast fashion, Zara, Shein, Mango and COS, show us that they aren’t going anywhere. What we can do is when we shop at these international chains is choose sustainable choices over those made from synthetics that leak microplastics.

“I’m excited to reunite with H&M after 20 years since our first collaboration. Reworking pieces from my archive brought back so much energy and joy. This second partnership feels like a chance to look at how far we’ve come on sustainability, cruelty-free practices and conscious design – and to stay honest about how far we still have to go—together.

Related: make mushroom paper and leather

“I am thrilled to have H&M join me on this road, real change only happens when we push from both the outside and the inside, and I’ve always believed in infiltrating from within to move the industry forward,” said Stella in a press announcement.

Stella not only delivers fashion, she’s the first of the big brands to actually integrate fungus, and plant-based plastics into her pieces, runways and collections. With Balena, she chose the Israeli biodegradable plastic company for her running shoes, she’s worked with cinnamon waste in these biodregadable shoes. And she uses a mushroom based leather for her fashion pieces in clothing and footwear.

What’s the plan with H&M? The collection isn’t launched yet but let’s hope it will be bold.

H&M’s Creative Advisor Ann-Sofie Johansson (pictured above) said: “Stella’s designs have changed the course of fashion history: they championed sustainable practices long before that conversation became mainstream.

“Her work is always joyful, playful, energetic.”

The Stella McCartney H&M collection will launch in stores and online in Spring 2026. The collection will feature certified, responsible materials – many of which are recycled – showcasing examples of alternatives for conventional fabrics and textiles.

This announcement comes 20 years since McCartney’s first collection for the label where they celebrated sustainability, cruelty-free practices and conscious designs. We can’t wait to preview the collection soon!

::Stella McCartney and sustainability

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Vivobarefoot is a wildly popular shoe brand founded by Galahad and Asher Clark of the Clark shoes empire. The shoes are outrageously expensive ––about twice the price of leading fashion sports brands such as Nike, yet loyal customers come back time and time again to buy shoes that give the most true-to-barefoot experience in a shoe.

Vivo is now collaborating with an Israeli-Italian company Balena which is making a method and material so that shoes at the end of their lives will compost. It should be said that even the plastic parts of Vivo’s shows start to disintegrate anyway after a year.

What are barefoot shoes?

They have wide area for your toes to open out. The soles have zero padding, and just a thin layer of rubber between your foot and the world. No support. Because “you are the technology” as the slogan goes. Our feet, essentially, are built to support our backs and bodies. Modern shoes, Vivobarefoot claims, can actually damage your feet and body by changing your gate, and by putting pressure on areas of your body when running like your knees.

My son has been wearing Vivo shoes for 7 years and so have I. The rubber on the soles of the shoes wear out before the rest of the shoe. So if rubber and plastics aren’t going to last a lifetime, we can say it’s time to usher in the idea of footwear that can melt back to the earth.

Vivobarefoot says they have been prototyping 3D-printed footwear since 2019. Brand co-founder Asher Clark previously called the development of a 3D-printed shoe “an obsession”. The process involves 3D-printing the harder parts of the shoe such as the sole, then 3D-knitting the upper part. By 3-D printing, essentially shoes can be customized to a customer’s foot in the color choice they want.

Read related: the 10 best marathons in the Middle East

By making shoes to measure, less material is wasted and product longevity is likely enhanced due to the shoes fitting the wearer perfectly. This translates to reduction in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions across the product value chain, according to companies that assess product life cycle.

Through its new partnership with Balena, Vivobarefoot is aiming to create 3D-printed shoes made with material that is both compostable and recyclable. Balena will apply its ‘BioCir flex’ material to the partnership. This material includes at least 50% bio-based content.

VivoBarefoot’s Clark said: “The world doesn’t need new shoes. We need a new system and new materials.”

Banela’s founder David Roubach said that there “is a need to advocate for a clearer circular economy model with a fundamental change in the materials we use” to reduce waste in this sector.

Billions of pairs of shoes are made globally each year. And most of these get thrown out as a by-product of fast fashion. That’s why there are so many flipflops in the Syechelles. If you have a business idea to work with a biodegradable material for rubber ducks and flipflops on a cruise line, you have a new impact company.

More on Balena here.

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We’ve seen some pretty interesting shoes on Green Prophet, such as these tongue shoes from Israeli designer Kobi Levi and these nature-friendly vegan shoes, but we would never have thought about sprouting new life from smelly worn shoes. OAT Shoes from the Netherlands did, and they’ve been awarded a ton of prize money for their ingenuity. Still in the conceptual stage and barely off the runway, it will be a long time before we see these in the Middle East. But hey, I’d walk 500 miles to be the gal who wears biodegradable shoes.This brand-new shoe design combines sleek style and biodegradable materials to produce sneakers that leave no mark on the environment when thrown out.

“Bury them in the garden, woods or compost, water regularly and flowers will bloom from your old kicks.”

Christiaan Maats from Delfzijl studied Industrial Design in Delft. He then immersed himself in the idea of storytelling through product design in Sydney, Australia before moving to Amsterdam to make some shoes that didn’t compromise his respect for nature.

His sidekick Dirk-Jan Oudshoorn from Western Holland studied in Delft and then worked in a pop-up nightclub made from recycled materials before working with Uran Utangs in Indonesia.

Together they created a product that went from zero to one hundred directly after their original launch, clinching second prize at the Green Fashion Awards during Amsterdam’s International Fashion week. They come is several colors and were born out of endless hours of research and testing.

This team expresses their vision as such:

“The future of fashion lies in a reconciliation between nature and industry. OAT Shoes strives to lead the way to that future.”

:: OAT Shoes

Green shoes in the Middle East:

Are Kobi Levi’s Tongue Shoes Fit For Dancing?

NIKE Shoe Recycling In Israel

Natalie’s Vegan Feet

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