Vilebrequin

Giving a short about the OCEANS

Vilebrequin embarks on a journey to clean up the past and build the future

By KATIE LISTER

One drop of water creates a ripple effect. It may be tiny in size, but its impact can spread across the surface of the ocean. Can a pair of shorts make a big splash in helping to change the world for the better? It certainly can. Vilebrequin and non-profit organization Plastic Odyssey have teamed up to make a difference, one pair of swim trunks at a time. Their new special edition collaboration features a premium swim trunk made from upcycled marine plastics where proceeds from every pair goes toward cleaning up the past and building the future. We will get to the specific details short(ly) - pun intended. But first, let’s provide some backstory. Born in Saint-Tropez and renowned for bringing the elegant, fun, and seductive charm of the French Riviera to the world, Vilebrequin has been shaping the art of living at the beach since 1971. In 2021 it is popping the champagne to celebrate 50 years of swimsuit expertise. A milestone for CEO Roland Herlory - a proud optimist with a big love of sea turtles (the company’s iconic symbol) - who has served as captain since 2012. Continuing its growth in the Caribbean, the brand has launched a boutique in Saint Martin in LVMH Group’s Belmond La Samanna resort.

Over the years the house has stood the test of time as beachgoers’ go-to luxury swimwear staple, through its timeless, high-quality tailoring, its playful colours and prints, and its sense of “joie de vivre.” Like a fine wine, your love of Vilebrequin only gets better with age.

With its rich history, this brand is looking to the future and taking action today to help to tackle challenges that our ecosystem faces. The people behind Vilebrequin have big hearts, a lot of soul and carry a strong sense of responsibility for the generations to come.

Their sense of purpose and constant questioning lies deeply within the very fabric of the brand - literally and figuratively: While time has served the company well over the past five decades, since its debut it has proven to be unkind to the oceans. The global community has witnessed - and played an active role in - the increasingly devastating ocean plastic and pollution crisis. We have reached a breaking point: our precious sea life is gasping for air, decaying, drowning in plastic, and things are spiralling out of control. With Vilbrequin being so intimately intertwined with and indebted to the Mediterranean sea, where its odyssey began (the label would not exist today without the surf and sand as a source of inspiration), the team has felt a deep, growing sense of urgency to protect the oceans and the marine life that all life depends on. For some years now, Vilebrequin has been working to turn the tide on plastic pollution and to move in the right direction. Having a desire to continue spreading optimism and positive influence across the globe, this year the company proudly launched Fondation Vilebrequin, the house’s namesake non-

PUTTING A STOP TO OCEAN PLASTICS TOGETHER PLASTIC ODYSSEY IS EMBARKING ON A THREE-YEAR EXPEDITION ACROSS THE WORLD’S OCEANS USING A LABORATORY VESSEL TO PROMOTE RECYCLING PLASTIC WASTE AND COMBAT MARINE POLLUTION. THIS SHARED ADVENTURE BRINGS TOGETHER RESEARCHERS, ENGINEERS, SCIENTISTS, CITIZENS, WOMEN AND MEN FROM ALL OVER THE GLOBE DETERMINED TO MAKE A REAL CHANGE.

ECO

profit organization. Its mission is to continue to provide funding for associations, organizations and projects that help to protect marine diversity, to educate current and future generations on their environmental legacy, and to advocate more sustainable practices within the fashion industry. In-house, Vilebrequin has been continuously working on finding solutions in its own processes to optimize sustainability and minimize the carbon footprint, from fabric development and manufacturing through to the supply side. A few seasons ago Vilbrequin introduced their signature “MAN” sustainable swim trunk. It uses 200g of Seaqual® - a luxe-feel 100% recycled yarn made from upcycled sustainably sourced plastic waste recovered from the Mediterranean Sea in partnership with local fishermen.

As of this year, 50% of Vilebrequin’s collections are made from recycled or recyclable materials, aiming to have increased this to 80% by 2023. Combining these efforts with Vilebrequin’s lifelong reputation for making high-quality, durable, timeless products that last through the years, customers can sleep easy knowing that their investment in a pair of shorts or swimwear is both good for both the wallet and for the planet. Now diving into its sixth decade and kickstarting the foundation’s first year with a strong initiative, Vilebrequin has stepped in to support the non-profit organization Plastic Odyssey in its quest to reduce plastic pollution. Earlier this year Plastic Odyssey set sail on a three-year, 30-stopover, 40,000 nautical mile journey on its 128-foot vessel with stops in the Mediterranean, South America, Africa and Asia, to regions with little or no waste management or recycling infrastructure and resources in place. Plastic Odyssey wants to turn the tap off on ocean plastic at the source: ashore.

This year alone approximately eight million tonnes of plastic will find its way into the ocean. 200,000 tons of this - equivalent to 500 shipping containers - is leaked into the Mediterranean ocean, according to a recent IUCN report, and it is set to double by 2040 unless action is taken now. All over the news we see shocking photographs and videos of ocean plastic in our waters. Believe it or not, what we see in those images represents only 1% of the ocean plastic in the ocean: the plastic that floats along the surface. The other 99% of the plastic disappears somewhere into the abyss: some plastic finds its way onto the floor of the ocean, some disintegrates into micro particles that find their way into our food chain (on average we eat 5g of plastic every week), while the location of the rest of the plastic remains a mystery that needs to be solved.

If the right practices and infrastructure had been in place, much of the plastic in the oceans could have been avoided. “We want to clean up the past by recycling the waste that has been produced already, and to build a future without single use plastic,” explains Plastic Odyssey’s founder and CEO Simon Bernard. “We want to push people to reduce their consumption.” They are stopping at each destination for approximately three weeks “to demonstrate all of the solutions that we feature on board in order to convince people in local communities to replicate these. All of the different engineering and technology are in open source. There are no patents. We give for free all the knowledge, all the solutions so that it can be copied as much as possible.” They provide the equipment and business models to empower these communities with the tools and techniques to improve their recycling practices, and to reduce the chances of pollution finding its way into the surrounding waterways. Vilbrequin’s Roland Herlory emphasizes: “What is interesting with Plastic Odyssey is that their approach is to give local solutions, easy solutions which can be used by the communities living by the sea, in order to give value to the plastic waste. It is to seduce them with solutions which will transform the waste into value.”

Borne out of their shared mission of finding new and innovative solutions to a cleaner ocean, starting upstream of the problem, Vilebrequin and Plastic Odyssey have collaborated to bring a new swim trunk to life. Together they have launched an exclusive co-branded “MANOLO” swim trunk with ocean blue tones and a pattern intertwining Vilebrequin’s signature sea turtle symbol with Plastic Odyssey’s logo as an expression of solidarity. 30 euros of the proceeds from every pair of sustainable shorts will go straight to Plastic Odyssey’s future projects. This initiative will not only help to raise funds and drive their shared goals, it will also inspire others to make more conscious purchases, to improve their everyday sustainability practices, and motivate other brands across the industry to think more sustainably.

The team behind Vilebrequin feels that this initiative is the least that it can do for the oceans after everything that the oceans have done for Vilebrequin. We have just one planet. We are all its caretakers. If we are going to turn off the tap on ocean plastics, we all need to get on board. When it comes to our oceans there are no small changes or small contributions when we come together to achieve a common goal. It’s time for everyone to pitch in by rolling up our sleeves and putting on a new pair of (super cool) swim trunks. Hopefully the next time that you hit the beach you will feel like maybe, just maybe, things are changing for the better. Let’s get our shorts on together.

Be that drop.

Vilebrequin, Rue de la République, Gustavia Fondation Vilebrequin @vilebrequinfondation Plastic Odyssey - Plasticodyssey.org @plasticodyssey Belmond @belmond_lasamanna