(Source: Michael N. Todaro/Getty Images North America)It was a powerful message Pharrell Williams chose to send amid the excitement of New York Fashion Week: We, as a species, are consuming too much. On Saturday, the recording star unveiled his latest collaboration, a denim line for G-Star Raw made from recycled plastic that's collected from the ocean. Pharrell made a point to introduce his latest project at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan—beneath a life-size killer whale, no less. In case you aren't up to speed on the plastic epidemic taking over our seas, here's the scoop: Plastic cannot be broken down once it is thrown away. The human population discards so much of the material, it ends up in the ocean. Marine life has already become so deeply polluted by the toxic chemicals that are released once plastic comes into contact with heat that contaminated particles are dispersed throughout the water, rendering clean-up of the mess nearly impossible.
But there are initiatives to help alleviate the problem. One of them is Bionic, an organization that retrieves plastic from our oceans and turns it into yarn. Pharrell serves as a creative director for the brand, which approached G-Star just under a year ago about utilizing the yarn for a new collection.
(Source: Michael N. Todaro/Getty Images North America)"What I was hearing was amazing and completely unfeasible at the same time," says Thecla Schaeffer (with Williams, above), chief marketing officer of the Netherlands denim brand. "They asked us, 'Can you make denim out of ocean plastic?' And you have to know that G-Star has a history of innovative denim and a legacy of challenging the conventions of the industry. So we said yes, not really knowing what we got ourselves into at that time." After many trials, the team perfected the new material, which they hope to start incorporating into all their future collections. The first is set to release August 15, marking the first initiative for the cause within the fashion industry. Watch the below video to learn more about the inspiring, sustainable process:
(Courtesy: G-Star Raw)
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