Bionic Yarn Makes Sustainable Chic

by: Emily Kirkpatrick

Bionic Yarn, a soft, durable fabric made primarily from recycled plastic bottles, is now being used to make cool, modern clothing and footwear that takes sustainable and brings it to the streets. The fabric is being used in major collaborations with Moncler, Topshop, Timberland, and Gap, but originally, Bionic Yarn came from hi-tech fabric makers, Return Textiles, launched by high school friends Tyson Toussant and Tim Coombs.

In 2009, the rap, fashion, and business mogul Pharrell Williams became an investor in the company and the brand’s ambassador. Together Williams and Bionic Yarn made it their goal to change the way people think about “sustainable fabrics.” When people think of green, recycled clothing, they imagine the stiff, itchy, shapeless garments of the past. Bionic Yarn, under Williams’ expert fashion guidance, is attempting to create interesting, comfortable clothing that allows the consumer to make a commitment to encouraging greener practices without having to sacrifice any style.

According to Toussant, in the last year alone, the company has helped recycle two million plastic bottles into fabric, with projections for the coming year of ten million. “You cannot change the standard if you keep treating [green fabrics] as an alternative,” Williams said in a video for The Big Shft. If we continue to simply accept the current destructiveness of fabric production through our purchases when these green, sustainable fabrics like Bionic Yarn are becoming more pervasive and could revolutionize the textile industry, how do we expect to ever collectively take the much needed step forwards towards an environmentally friendly future?