Primary Medium

Textiles/Fiberart/Weaving

Address

67 West Street
Suite 508
Brooklyn, 11222

Artist Statement

Helena Elston Studio was founded in London in 2021 as a material-focused practice exploring regenerative design and living systems. After completing her MA in Textile Design at the Royal College of Art, Helena began working with mycelium as a way to rethink how materials are made, used, and ultimately returned. Now based in New York City, the studio operates at the intersection of art, design, and biology. Working exclusively with deadstock and textile waste, materials often considered unrecyclable, Helena uses mycelium to bind, transform, and decompose them into new forms. These take shape as garments, objects, and furniture, positioning textile waste not as an endpoint, but as the beginning of a regenerative cycle. The practice is rooted in materials in transition: growing, breaking down, and reforming. Each piece exists within a living process, challenging ideas of permanence, value, and authorship. Rather than designing static products, the work proposes systems, where materials can decompose safely, be reconstituted, or return to the earth without harm. By working with one of the fashion industry’s most urgent problems, textile waste, Helena’s work confronts the limitations of recycling and the reality that many synthetic materials were never designed to have a second life. Through mycelium, these materials are given new function: reimagined as tactile, livable, and wearable forms that exist between decay and creation. The work has been exhibited internationally, including Fugue Gallery NYC, the London Design Festival, and Mycelium Futures in Berlin, and has been featured in National Geographic, Dezeen, and Hypebeast. The studio collaborates across disciplines with brands, artists, and researchers to develop new material futures rooted in regeneration rather than extraction.

Links

Website: https://helenaelston.com/
Instagram: @helenaelston_studio