A man wearing many hats, Pharrell Williams is a Grammy award-winning singer, rapper, and record producer. To that list, we can also add business entrepreneur and sustainable fashion revolutionary. Because when Williams isn't singing about blurred lines, getting lucky or just being happy, he's making a case for converting ocean plastic into designer jeanswear.
The worlds of entertainment and fashion frequently overlap, and Williams is no exception; in his career, he’s worked with brands as diverse as Moncler, Uniqlo, Louis Vuitton, and Adidas. But it was his streetwear label Billionaire Boy’s Club which led him to a fateful meeting with a sustainable textile company called Bionic Yarn whose high-tech threads are made from plastic harvested from the ocean.
The patented structure of Bionic Yarn consists of three layers: a core to provide strength and stretchiness, a middle layer of recycled plastic (which makes up to 45% of the yarn), and then a top layer of fibres like cotton, wool or linen to give the fabric a natural feel.
And it takes just five steps to go from trash to treasure:
- Plastic bottles collected from the sea;
- Bottles shredded into fragments;
- Fragments heated;
- Fragments spun into yarn;
- Yarn weaved it into fabric.
Williams was impressed by the technology – so much so that he came on board as a third partner (alongside co-founders Tim Coombs and Tyson Toussant). As Creative Director at Bionic Yarn, Williams then worked with G-Star RAW to curate their first-ever line of jeans made from recycled ocean plastic, Raw For The Oceans, in 2014. The collection managed the unlikely feat of transforming unwanted ocean waste into denim that is desirable, funky, fresh and clean.
Raw For The Oceans represents a landmark in sustainable fashion for G-Star RAW. In four collections, approximately 10 tons of plastic were recycled per collection. And the fashion revolution took over other parts of the business. In 2015, the company estimated that they used two million plastic bottles and 1,000 tons of plastic debris for their entire range.
Williams became a co-owner of G-Star RAW in 2016. He bought into the company to form a strategic partnership. And in typically understated style, he chose to drop the news via Instagram: “On top of my business. As of today, proud to be a co-owner of G-star RAW.”
The scope of Williams’ role at the company is creative, overseeing design, ad campaigns, and helping to outline the company strategy. Most recently he enlisted Jaden Smith to create a sustainable denim line. Maybe more important than enlisting celebrity friends (though that helps), Williams has accelerated the brand’s commitment to sustainable fashion. Bionic Yarn is still in use, and G-Star Raw has adopted a series of supply chain transparency pledges to develop “cradle-to-cradle” certified denim.
But wait, the story doesn’t end there. Perhaps the thing that characterises Williams most is his restless creativity. Not content to kick back and reflect on his formidable accomplishments, there are a few more initiatives lined up on his sustainable fashion agenda.
He’s a big fan of the ethical brand label PANGAIA, for example, and frequently supports their products. Most recently, PANGAIA launched a vegan down jacket. The result of 10 years scientific research, the jacket is characterised by cruelty-free insulation – made from dried wildflowers instead of goose feathers – and an outer lining made from recycled materials and plastic bottles.
Elsewhere, excitement is building for the launch of a capsule collection Williams is designing for Chanel, the legendary fashion house. There are few details about what the collection will contain, but knowing Williams’ track record, slow fashion and sustainable fashion are practically guaranteed a spotlight on the luxury catwalk.
Image credits:
Header image: Getty Images
Image of seahorse under water: Shutterstock
Image of Pharell Williams and group of people in laundry room: Getty Images
Image of model wearing big red coat: Courtesy of Pangaia