Today it is World Oceans Day, a global celebration to raise awareness and encourage people to care about the health of our oceans for a better future.
Fashion has always been inspired by the beauty of the ocean and by the diverse creatures that live in it. In the history of fashion we have indeed seen mermaids, aquatic monsters, and visions of an underwater future created by the ice cap melting (remember Alexander McQueen's "Plato's Atlantis"?).
In the last few years the attention of fashion has actually reshifted from the fantastic depths of the ocean towards the possibility of using plastic waste found in the water to produce garments and accessories.
Different brands developed such intiatives and products, among them also very prominent ones including Adidas. In the last three years for example the Parley for the Oceans initiative launched a series of projects and products, hoping to contribute to changing our collective habits.
Parley's site includes informative sections about the state of the oceans: 8 million metrics tons of plastic trash ends up in our oceans every year and a research done in January by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) showed that plastic debris less than 5mm across (known as microplastic - probably from consumer products) is common from the surface to the seafloor and it may also be entering marine food webs in the deep ocean.
The researchers also looked at concentrations of microplastic particles in specimens of two marine species that filter-feed in the water column: pelagic red crabs and giant larvaceans and the team found microplastic in all of the animal species they analysed.
Parley joins the celebrations for World Oceans Day with a timely release of limited edition of Ocean Plastic® bags designed in collaboration with renowned contemporary artists Doug Aitken, Walton Ford, Jenny Holzer, Pipilotti Rist, Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel and Rosemarie Trockel.
Cyrill Gutsch, founder and CEO Parley for the Oceans, stated about the project, "Parley was founded in the heart of the art community. Artists are driven by true intentions, transparent and clear in expressing their agenda - the artist is therefore the strongest messenger and perfect driver for change. I believe art has the power to initiate conversations that might otherwise never take place. Art allows us to rethink, to recalibrate and to collaborate."
The prints and images on the bags reflect the variety of approaches to the project of the artists involved, so you can choose between the geometrical figures representing his underwater pavilion (consisting of temporary sculptures submerged beneath the water's surface in Avalon, California) by American artist and filmmaker Doug Aitken, a still from Pipilotti Rist's audio-visual installation "Sip My Ocean" (1992) and Schnabel's photographs of surfers.
Yet water and the sea remained the main inspirations for all the artist involved: as Julian Schnabel stated, "The ocean, the sea, and the waves have had a big influence on my life. It is so important that people finally comprehend that there is something bigger than them. The ocean teaches us to be humble, to respect it, and to accept that we are all part of something greater."
The most important thing about the bags is not the actual artworks featured on them but the material used to make them: Ocean Plastic® is a premium material created from upcycled plastic waste recovered from remote islands, waters and coastlines by Parley's global cleanup network currently active in 28 countries. It is estimated that 1 to 5 trillion plastic bags are consumed annually worldwide, even though the disposable bags are used on average just 12 minutes before being discarded.
Each Ocean Plastic® bag is made from approximately five intercepted plastic bottles and each bag funds the clean-up of 20 pounds of marine plastic waste.
The artists involved remind us with their work that we have desecrated nature for decades and that we should start making small changes to our everyday habits and become the caretakers of our planet and our oceans.
"When we talk about the oceans and we look at the radical disruption we've created within the sea, we're not quite aware yet how much that's going to affect us and our lives on land. The ramifications of that are immense. This is one thing which cannot be exaggerated," states Doug Aitken in a press release about the project.
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