Dior has unveiled the new season of the perennial Beachwear Capsule line, for the first time in collaboration with Parley for the Oceans, an environmental organisation and collaboration network taking action against major ocean threats with a strategy called Parley AIR: Avoid, Intercept, Redesign. Together, they have conceived some of the items of this capsule that reflects the House’s desire to move towards a more eco-innovative, sustainable future for fashion.
“With the latest science highlighting the dire urgency of action, we need transformational change in every sector of society to end the rapidly unfolding impacts on both humans and nature and protect our future on this magical blue planet. Creating this first collection with Dior is a call for the fashion industry to revolutionise its production methods,” said Parley for the Oceans’ founder and CEO Cyrill Gutsch.
This project was inspired by the deep, unbreakable ties that unite Dior with nature, born of Christian Dior’s passion for flowers and gardens, but also for the sea: a fascination cultivated from his childhood, lulled by the songs of the waves of the English Channel. Sharing this love and desire to preserve the beauty of the undersea world, Dior Men’s artistic director Kim Jones sought to use responsible materials for this collection by collaborating with Parley, starting in 2019.
The joint research project, driven by a desire for eco-innovation, has given life to new yarns and fabrics, designed from Parley Ocean Plastic, created from upcycled marine plastic debris and fishing gear recovered from coastlines and remote islands around the world, particularly in the Maldives, Dominican Republic and Sri Lanka, and engineered into high performance materials by Parley and its global network.
The material then was reworked in the heart of Dior’s ateliers; a challenge for the artisans who, from this newly fashioned, recycled alternative to virgin polyester, created high-quality fabrics, such as a jacquard, a mesh knit and a technical canvas. Marrying desirability with sustainability, these highly singular materials – made ever-more sublime by a palette of blues and ochres – are adorned with iconic patterns, such as the Dior Oblique, timeless bayadères, as well as the Adriatic graphic motif, drawn from the House’s archives, showing up on a silky jacquard and chiné for a bewitching three-dimensional effect.
This wealth of innovative fabrics dresses up casual and summer looks with a functional spirit, evoking the world of travel, dear to Kim Jones. Combining comfort and elegance, technicality and refinement, this wardrobe is made up of essential, adventure-ready, mix-and-match pieces, including poplin pants, a thick t-shirt, a polo shirt and a sweater. Two jackets come in a packable format, allowing them to be folded up to fit in a pouch that borrows its curves from the elemental Saddle bag. Completing the silhouettes, the B23 sneakers incorporate an Adriatic heather fabric, along with biobased plastic soles.
This Beachwear Capsule collection supports the new Parley X10 impact program, which guarantees that 10 times the equivalent of each product’s carbon and plastic footprint will be intercepted from nature, the development of new materials that can replace plastic long-term is funded, and the use of new, virgin plastic is avoided.
Uniting the promise of a contemporary look and a brighter tomorrow, the Beachwear Capsule represents the start of a new alliance that looks to redesign the materials, methods and mindsets of the industry to achieve a sustainable future.
(Images: Dior)
This story first appeared on Augustman Singapore
