Timberland is giving sustainability new cool.
For its Spring/Summer 2019 men’s collection, the global outdoor lifestyle brand has again partnered with Christopher Raeburn, a British fashion designer known for taking discarded duds and surplus fabrics and turning them into en mode creations.
Set to launch in select stores Friday, the collection solidifies Timberland’s position in fashion and reinforces its aim of greening its supply chain.
Raeburn’s design ethos, Timberland head of sustainability and responsibility Marianella Cervi said at the Textile Exchange Textile Sustainability Conference in Milan Thursday, aligns with the company’s commitment to sustainability.
“Everything he does looks at how can it be remade,” Cervi said, adding how Raeburn’s design principle, which follows three key pillars—remade, reduced, recycled—“complements our commitment to make sustainable product.”
To create the collection, Raeburn remade new pieces from original 1980s classic Timberland items he found in street markets, flea markets and vintage shops. Each find was deconstructed and reconstructed to make pieces including a parka, reversible anoraks and hoodies, and joggers.
In a video highlighting some behind the scenes of the collab, Raeburn said, “The first thing I wanted to do was look back on the amazing sort of archive and the amazing garments that Timberland has done over the years. And then when we think about the remade process, it was really good fun to find these beautiful iconic pieces then completely deconstruct them and remake them then into kind of really iconic, almost art pieces, and from there we’ve developed a whole collection where everything is either recycled or indeed organic cotton.”
The pieces, replicated from the initial runway collection, have been replicated for a broadened range made using recycled PET and organic cotton. And the luxury streetwear appeal of the collection is undeniable, which has garnered new attention for Timberland.
“Of course, it’s allowing us to engage with this new segment of consumers that we might not have reached with our normal collection,” Cervi said.