Lucie Donlan’s sustainable swimsuit shows how far ethical swimwear has come
We love Love Island here at Super Bulky and so when Lucie Donlan wore a sustainable swimsuit from one of our favourite designers Pursuit the Label we realised just how far eco friendly awareness has grown in the beach wear world
When the surf loving Love islander Lucie Donlan stepped into our world for the first time in a pink eco friendly sustainable swimsuit from iondy UK ethical clothing brand Pursuit the Label we realised that swimwear was very much not at the forefront of the ethical clothing movement
Pursuit the Label’s flagship ethical swimwear range includes the sustainable swimsuit called The Viper Suit is made from econyl which comes from recycled ocean waste which is just brilliant
What is Eco-Nyl?
Fishing nets have become a huge problem for marine life. Whales, dolphins, sharks, turtles and other marine life are being trapped by the nets left behind by fishermen. But with some clever innovations and technology, fashion could be the answer to cleaning up some of these nets and saving the lives of our beautiful marine life.
A number of brands, like surf champion Kelly Slater’s label Outerknown, or Stella McCartney, are now using fishing nets and reclaimed marine debris to make a fabric, ECONYL, that is not only turned into quality garments, but help reduce pressure on the oceans and their inhabitants.
What is ECONYL?
The ECONY fabric which is now so popular with sustainable swimsuit and ethical swimwear designers, created by Italian firm Aquafil, uses synthetic waste such as industrial plastic, waste fabric and fishing nets from oceans, recycles and regenerates them into a new nylon yarn that is exactly the same quality as virgin nylon.
This regeneration system focuses on 6 steps that form a closed loop and uses less water and creates less waste than traditional nylon production methods. Waste is collected, then cleaned and shredded, depolymerised to extract nylon, polymerised, transformed into yarn and then re-commercialised into textile products.
How can ECONYL help sustaianble swimwear designers?
ECONYL is a way to recycle and replace virgin nylon in our everyday products and clothes and is perfect for ethical swimwear. Traditional production methods for nylon are not eco-friendly, they require huge amounts of water and produce a hefty amount of nitrous oxide, which is 10 times more potent than carbon dioxide. What’s more, nylon is not biodegradable, and it is estimated that up 40% of man made plastic waste in the oceans are nylon.
“We knew that the future of fashion had to change. We both made the decision to turn our passion into a business with a deeper purpose”
Pursuit the Label Founders
Pursuit the Label will be restocking soon so click on any of the sustainable swimwear items you see here and go to our sister company Sustail to see more ethical clothing
Check out sustainable swimwear from Pursuit the Label on Sustail.com
