Animal welfare and environmental protection are issues that have inspired stars for years now to a range of initiatives from adopting animals to rescuing our oceans. The latter currently has particular significance. Large amounts of coral are dying on the Great Barrier Reef, birds are caught up in plastic waste at sea and plastic material finds it way into the human body through fish in the food chain – our oceans resemble environmental construction sites.

Currently a number of innovative projects

There are currently a number of innovative projects receiving support from celebrities that are taking up these challenges, for example fishing plastic bottles and abandoned nets out of the sea for recycling. Yet some of these concepts are more than well-known personalities merely showing commitment to charity; they are fully developed and clever business models: will.I.am, founder member of The Black Eyed Peas and seven-time Grammy Award winner, set up the Ekocycle initiative in conjunction with The Coca-Cola Company. The company produces fashion from recycled plastic bottles and collaborates in this with various brands such as Keds shoes or the outerwear label Ecoalf.

“RAW for the Oceans”

G-Star has also launched a similar campaign. In 2014 with “RAW for the Oceans”, the Dutch denim label brought out a collection for the first time using plastic waste collected from the oceans, recycled and processed in conjunction with the biotech company Bionic Yarn to make new jeans. “We vacation by the oceans, we bathe in the oceans, we eat from the oceans, but very few of us think of the oceans beyond what we want from them. The oceans need us now,” explains Pharell Williams who, as co-designer and celebrity backer, has promoted the collection from the start and thus helped provide it with greater media attention. In February 2016 he became co-owner of the denim label and wants to take the business further in the direction of sustainability in the future.

In our print edition 7/8 2016 from / since 4 July, you read the full article by Rebecca Espenschied.