Dutch denim group G-Star to make jeans from ocean plastic waste

From Blue To Green: Inside Pharrell's Latest Fashion Venture

Pharrell Williams: Live from the Museum of Natural History, for the oceans.

American singer and producer Pharrell Williams has joined forces with Dutch denim company G-Star and textile group Bionic Yarn to make jeans from plastic collected from the world’s oceans.
The ‘RAW for the Oceans’ line will use denim made of plastic yarns from materials removed from the oceans and will be sold in some G-Star shops as an exclusive collection.

The collection, co-designed by Pharrell, will be launched in August.
- See more at: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/02/dutch_denim_group_g-star_to_ma.php#sthash.tq4M3Upp.dpuf

Published Feb. 10, 2014 on Forbes.com by Zack O'Malley Greenberg

Halfway between Japan and North America, a swirling vortex of trash known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch occupies a slice the ocean’s surface twice the size of Texas. It’s not visible via satellite and is often hard to discern with the naked eye, mostly because it’s made up of pieces of clear plastic in various states of degradation.

These materials come from bags, bottles and other mundane household items, but the consequences of their presence are dire. Half of the 400,000 albatrosses born every year in the nearby Midway Atoll die after consuming plastic they’ve mistaken for food. Over 250 species suffer similar fates–or ingest garbage and send it all the way up the food chain. A dead whale recently washed up near Seattle with a stomach full of plastic bags, surgical gloves, duct tape and a pair of pants.

Oddly enough, clothing may be part of the solution to this problem, thanks to Pharrell Williams. The superproducer earned headlines in recent weeks for his Grammy night haberdashery, but his latest fashion move could make even larger waves. He’s helping G-Star design and launch a new line of clothing made from yarn sourced from recycled ocean plastic. Dubbed Raw For The Oceans, the collaboration will hit stores this summer. The inspiration dates back to his involvement with the Live Earth concerts many years ago.


“When I got there I was struck by all the people who were so into the cause, and what it really meant,” he told a crowd gathered beneath a giant blue whale at the Museum of Natural History last weekend. “I said to myself, ‘Maybe there’s something I could do, let me find something that makes sense for me.’ [Raw For The Oceans] was an interesting thing that popped up, and it was the first thing that made sense.”

The story begins about a year ago, when Bionic Yarn—which Williams co-owns—started talks with G-Star, together with ocean pollution awareness outfit Parley. Williams and other key players met in Berlin to discuss a collaboration, proposing a simple question with a complex answer: Can you make denim out of recycled ocean plastic?

“It’s Pharrell, so you say ‘yes,’ of course,” says G-Star CMO Thecla Schaeffer. “Since then, we’ve been on this creative journey to get the plastic out of the ocean and then to integrate it into denim that’s as beautiful and feels as good as regular denim.”

To make Raw For The Oceans happen, G-Star had to turn its entire supply chain upside down. Instead of purchasing fabrics from mills, the company had to go all the way back to the raw materials. That meant working with outfits like Bionic Yarn, Parley for the Oceans and the Vortex Project, which finds new ways to extract plastic from the water.

The process for making clothing out of this material begins in the water with the collection of plastic, and continues as Bionic Yarn breaks down the material into tiny chips, then yarn. G-Star also had to run tests with its mills to make sure the yarn would work in their machines. So far, so good.

Next up: the design phase—and even more hands-on involvement from Williams.

“We buy the yarn from him and he co-designs the collection with us,” explains Schaeffer. “It’s very personal and goes very deep. He’s very much involved in the zippers and the colors of the items.”

The multi-year, seven-figure deal calls for Williams to earn a per-unit royalty, most of which he’ll contribute to the Vortex Project. In addition to launching capsule collections with Williams, who also boasts clothing brands Ice Cream and Billionaire Boys Club, G-Star is looking to integrate Bionic Yarn into all of its lines.

That’s good news for the species affected by the plastic buildup in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—and the citizens of Earth on the whole.

“If the oceans die,” said Captain Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, at last weekend’s event, “we die.”

Meanwhile, Williams will continue his work as a musician, starting with the launch of his latest single, “Happy.” Should we expect to see him show up at next year’s Grammys in a Raw For The Oceans hat made out of recycled plastic?

Says Williams: “You never know.”

From Dutchnews :

American singer and producer Pharrell Williams has joined forces with Dutch denim company G-Star and textile group Bionic Yarn to make jeans from plastic collected from the world’s oceans.

The ‘RAW for the Oceans’ line will use denim made of plastic yarns from materials removed from oceans and will be sold in some G-Star shops as an exclusive collection. 

The collection, co-designed by Pharrell, will be launched in August.

 

Raw from the Oceans screengrab from promotional video 

Pharrell Williams partners with G-Star Raw to promote awareness about plastic pollution

Published February 8, 2014 on treehugger.com by Margaret Badore

© Bionic/G-Star Raw

 

It's Fashion Week in New York City, so there's no shortage of fashion-related celebrity buzz. But here's one you might not have seen coming: musician Pharrell Williams is now the creative director of a recycled textiles maker, Bionic Yarn. The company is partnering with G-Star Raw to launch a new collection during Fashion Week, called Raw for the Ocean.

Bionic Yarn is made from recycled plastic PET, some of which is extracted from the ocean. One of the goals of the line is to raise awareness about the massive plastics pollution problem. Fittingly, the mascot of the collection is an octopus.

Here's what Pharrell has to say about it:

"Through the collaboration between Bionic Yarn and G-Star, we are making sustainable products more accessible for everyone. By creating yarn from oceans' plastic, we are actually moving things forward within the fashion industry."

Thecla Schaeffer at G-Star Raw explains that the Bionic material is just like denim. "The Bionic yarn is coiled with cotton. When you feel the fabric it feels as soft as regular denim. And it looks like regular denim."

It's my understanding that extracting plastics from the ocean is a logistical nightmare, so it's good that Bionic is not only working to do that but also putting the material to use. What's even better is that when the clothes wear out, the fabric can be recycled by separating the cotton from the polyester.

Schaeffer said G-Star Raw and Bionic are planning to continue collaborating in the future. "This is a long-term creative exploration to innovate denim and make a real impact against plastic pollution," she said. "Together with Pharrell, we will launch a new Bionic collection each season. Next to those collections, we are planning to integrate Bionic Yarn in as much product as we can."

We look forward to seeing more of the collection, which will be in stores in July.

Tags: Clothing | Oceans | Plastics

http://www.bionicyarn.com

Tuesday 11 February 2014


American singer and producer Pharrell Williams has joined forces with Dutch denim company G-Star and textile group Bionic Yarn to make jeans from plastic collected from the world’s oceans.
The ‘RAW for the Oceans’ line will use denim made of plastic yarns from materials removed from the oceans and will be sold in some G-Star shops as an exclusive collection.

The collection, co-designed by Pharrell, will be launched in August.
- See more at: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/02/dutch_denim_group_g-star_to_ma.php#sthash.tq4M3Upp.dpuf

Tuesday 11 February 2014


American singer and producer Pharrell Williams has joined forces with Dutch denim company G-Star and textile group Bionic Yarn to make jeans from plastic collected from the world’s oceans.
The ‘RAW for the Oceans’ line will use denim made of plastic yarns from materials removed from the oceans and will be sold in some G-Star shops as an exclusive collection.

The collection, co-designed by Pharrell, will be launched in August.
- See more at: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/02/dutch_denim_group_g-star_to_ma.php#sthash.tq4M3Upp.dpuf