(Milan Design Week report)

Facemasks, based from the same acrylic material used to stuff massproduced cheap down-jackets (polypropylene), are now the infamous emblem of the pandemic. Preventing the spread of the Covid-19 virus while also plaguing the ground with a disease of its own: plastic pollution. Carried away by Icelandic strong winds, the masks littering the streets of Reykjavik quickly spread to the entire natural landscape. To prevent this from happening we collected around 1500 light-blue masks around the streets of Reykjavík, thoroughly disinfected with ozone gas.

Tobia Zambotti chose to partner up with Finnish designer Aleksi Saastamoinen, currently enrolled at Aalto University as a fashion design student, to come up with an impactful coat design that would emphasize the extent of the environmental problem the two designers tried to ched light on.

Aleksi gave the coat this opulent and forward-looking shape in order to sensitize people to the facemask waste problem and highlight its magnitude. The deliberately oversized and exaggerated silhouette allowed for a large number of facemasks to be repurposed as an unusual stuffing for “Coat-19”, fashion collaboration following Tobia’s “Couch-19” first impactful facemask design. The facemasks were shipped to Helsinki where each mask was filled with organic cotton and sewn in. Aleksi selected a semi-transparent bio-sourced material (from Alpex), both waterproof and breathable, to let its distinctive “pandemic blue” filling show through, yet frosted to bring some coldness to the design, making it look like a product that has already been worn by the elements. Meant as a beacon leading towards creative solutions for this environmental issue, aftermath to the pandemic.

Tobia Zambotti BIO

Tobia Zambotti (Italy-1990) is a Reykjavík-based designer working in the intersection of interior design, product design and conceptual art. After his B.A in Architecture at IUAV (Venice) and M.A in Interior Design at Politecnico di Milano (Milan), Tobia moved to Shanghai to work with Alberto Caiola Studio, an award winning firm specialized in interiors. At the beginning of 2019 Tobia decided to leave the chaotic and polluted Chinese city for an opposite lifestyle in Reykjavík (Iceland) where he started to work as a freelance designer. Tobia’s projects got an important media coverage from prestigious magazines all over the world such as Frame, Dezeen, Interior Design, Forbes, Elle Decor, Designboom and many more (+). Recent works include Perlan Ice cream parlour - an immersive abstract ice cave located in the biggest museum in Iceland, The Fan Chair - a chair collection that gives a new life to discarded stadium seats and Coat-19 - the puffer jacket filled with single-use masks that highlights the absurd pandemic-related pollution.

Aleksi Saastamoinen

Aleksi Saastamoinen is a Finnish designer from Helsinki. He first discovered his interest for creation and fashion while growing up within the fashion industry and thus designed his first garment pieces for the family owned Finland based brand R-Collection. He is currently enrolled at the Aalto University as a BA Fashion Design student but he continues to work on various design projects and collaborating with other artists for sustainable creations. His most recent and noteworthy collaborations include a sustainable garment collection with the WWF Finland organization; and “COAT-19”, the creation of a puffer jacket filled with single-use facemasks, made in collaboration with Italian designer Tobia Zambotti as part of a bigger artistic project made to raise awareness on worldwide environmental pollution of facemasks.

Pictures by Luca Ranghetti, Patrik Ontkovic Models: Lorenzo Sabbatani, Digital Sigga Materials: Discarded disposable masks | Recycled transparent laminate fabric | Organic cotton wool filling