Luxury and sustainability are increasingly going hand in hand, and it’s no wonder. Experts estimate that by 2050 there will be more plastics than fish in the oceans, and in the face of this alarming figure, Prada has launched a new fabric recycling initiative in which plastics take center stage.
Prada’s new sustainable project, Re-Nylon, comes just a month after the house announced it would stop using fur in its garments, changing the course of the brand.
With the Re-Nylon project, Prada aims to replace all the nylon it uses with recycled nylon by 2021.
El grupo italiano se ha asociado con Aquafil para este proyecto en el que reinventa uno de sus tejidos fetiche, el nylon. Aquafil es la empresa de producción textil creadora de Econyl, un tejido de nylon reciclado que se obtiene del plástico recogido en los océanos, redes de pesca y otras malgastadas fibras textiles.
The Italian group has partnered with Aquafil for this project, reinventing one of its iconic fabrics, nylon. Aquafil is the textile production company behind Econyl, a fabric made from recycled nylon obtained from plastic collected in oceans, fishing nets, and other discarded textile fibers.
Nylon is reinvented
In the first phase of the project, Prada has used Econyl in a capsule collection consisting of six pieces: backpacks, bags, and a classic unisex waist bag that opens the door for the brand to join the sustainable luxury movement. The brand not only intends to use this new material in one collection but has committed to replacing all the nylon it uses in the production of its garments and accessories with Aquafil’s recycled nylon by 2021.
The pieces in Prada’s capsule collection are unisex.
But Prada is not the only brand that has partnered with Aquafil. Other brands like Stella McCartney or Gucci already use Econyl in their collections. But why? What are its real benefits? The first is that if a brand like Prada stops using virgin nylon in its garments, it would stop using about 700,000 meters of this plastic material per year. The second is that for every 10,000 tons of Econyl produced, 12.6 thousand tons of ocean waste are removed, and 70,000 tons of oil are saved. In addition, Econyl fibers can be reused as many times as desired without their quality being compromised.
Bag from the Re-Nylon collection.
The waist bag from the collection.
What We Carry: Prada’s sustainable project told through National Geographic
Prada’s sustainable campaign has become the perfect opportunity for National Geographic, its Storytelling Partner, to also engage in dissemination. To do this, it has produced a series of videos titled What We Carry. An incredible journey through the five continents where you can discover the reality of the current situation of the planet and all the cutting-edge processes behind a project like this.
In the first of the five episodes, which marks the launch of Prada Re-Nylon, actress Bonnie Wright and explorer Asher Jay take us to Phoenix, Arizona. There lies the first carpet recycling company in the United States and one of the sources of Econyl production. This plant recycles up to 16,000 tons of material per year, which may seem like a lot, but the reality is quite different. Less than 3% of the 1.6 million tons of discarded carpets in the United States each year are recycled.
The first episode of What We Carry is set in the first carpet recycling plant in the USA.
You can discover the rest of the episodes and more information about Prada’s sustainable project Re-Nylon on the National Geographic website and on Prada‘s own website.
