Dior Men’s are diving headfirst into the spring (soon to be Summer) sun with a new, eco-friendly beachwear capsule that draws on creative director Kim Jones’ nomadic childhood, spent on the beaches of Ecuador, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Caribbean and the UK. 

Making an ally in Parley for the Oceans, an environmental NGO founded in 2012 that specialises in sustainable fashion, the duo are making use of the latter’s three stage design strategy – avoid, intercept, redesign – for a capsule of beach-ready styles that embody Dior’s sustainable vision for the future. But how exactly does that all work? The team at Parley began by intercepting plastic from nature that would otherwise pose harm to sea life and pollute the ocean, before shredding these materials and turning them into yarn, which is then spun into the NGO’s official Ocean Fabric.

The collaboration marks the first time knits have been formed from the fabric, though it has not all been smooth sailing. As plastic yarns do not take to dye like regular cotton, innovating the thread in order to capture a uniform palette across the designs proved a tricky enough task, but both teams have cherished honing their innovative practices over obtaining perfect results straight away. Sustainability in fashion is a long game, after all, and is as much about changing a culture of thought as it is about adapting to conscious practices in the atelier.

What makes this collaboration so special, however, is both Dior and Parley opening up each other’s worlds to deliberate on the details. Take a button-up windbreaker and its nautical cheetah print, for example, formed using a chine weaving technique that allows the designers to work on patterns in depth by dying each thread at a time in the weaving sequence, as shown in the collection’s immersive ‘making of‘ video.

Elsewhere, the capsule boasts striped undershirts and loose-knitted polos in bright browns, Oblique-logo bottle holders, silky polyester blends in the form of crisp, short-sleeved shirting, black leather pouches and holdalls with braided rope handles, zip-up track tops and towelling sweats. All the essentials for a joyous day at the seaside, come rain or shine.

Dior’s Parley for the Ocean beachwear capsule will be available in stores and online from April 14th, 2022