Sustainability and luxury are not easy bedfellows.
The terms are contradictory when you consider the excess and waste that goes into producing luxury goods as it does across all facets of the fashion industry.
On the flipside, luxury products have long maintained the values of sustainability exceptionally crafted goods made from quality materials that stand the test of time.
It’s this thinking that is driving luxury brands to re-consider their impact on the planet, and for Prada, its iconic nylon bags are the perfect starting point for its latest project Prada Re-Nylon.
Created by Miuccia Prada in 1984, the industrial nylon knapsack redefined luxury and since re-introducing its sportswear line Linea Rossa in 2018, the revival of Prada’s nylon designs has prompted a closer look at how they’re produced.
Recycled nylon pieces now use Econyl, made from upcycled industrial nylon waste such as fishing nets and carpets, with the aim of changing all Prada virgin nylon to Prada Re-Nylon by 2021.
To support this recycling initiative, Prada has teamed up with National Geographic explorers and Prada reporters in a five-part docu-series exploring various recycling initiatives around the globe.
The first of the series, entitled What We Carry, took actress Bonnie Wright to a recycling plant in Arizona. The second follows model Adut Akech to a facility in Cameroon that collects fishing nets to be made into Econyl; and its third episode takes us below the surface of the ocean in Mahana Bay, off the coast of New Zealand, unpacking the ongoing problem of ghost nets fishing nets lost or left in the ocean.
Australian actor and Prada reporter Alex Fitzalan is joined by National Geographic explorer Asha de Vos, a Sri Lankan marine biologist, ocean educator, and pioneer of blue-whale research within the northern Indian Ocean.
They follow Rob Wilson, co-founder of Ghost Fishing New Zealand and a group of volunteers, as they remove harmful ghost nets from the sea bed as part of the Healthy Seas initiative, a global non-governmental organisation which works to remove marine litter from the sea.
• ‘What We Carry: Episode three’ is now available to watch at Prada.com, Pradagroup.com and Nationalgeographic.com
