This World Oceans Day, Parley for the Oceans and M.I.A. are proving that stylish sunglasses and plastic pollution don’t have to go hand in hand. The ocean preservation initiative has joined forces with the innovative singer and artist M.I.A. to create a line of futuristic sunglasses that are made entirely from repurposed marine waste. Even better? All the net profits go to funding Parley’s clean-up efforts to get more plastic out of our oceans. Here, find out all you need to know about the fashion-forward and sustainable sunglasses line.
Our oceans make up 70% of the planet’s land surface, are home to 700,000 species, and are responsible for 80% of the oxygen we breathe. Yet, as a result of our behaviours and plastic waste, they are severely under threat, with over 10 million tons of plastic waste entering the oceans every year. This World Oceans Day, Parley for the Oceans — a global initiative leading the charge in finding creative and impactful solutions to combating the pollution of our oceans — announced a new initiative to raise funds and awareness: a luxury eyewear collection.
The Clean Waves collection features a futuristic array of sunglasses all created from marine plastic debris and reclaimed fishing nets, which are one of the most pressing threats against marine life including turtles, whales and sharks. Plus, 100 per cent of the profits from the sales will go into funding Parley for Oceans’ remote island cleanups, education and infrastructure projects.
On top of the 14 variations of the core ‘Archetype’ model — a sleek, minimalist wayfarer style with tinted lenses — the new sustainable label has also revealed an an exclusive capsule collection of modular sunglasses by Sri Lanka born, UK based artist Maya Arulpragasam, better known as M.I.A.
Available at Selfridges and in select Dover Street Market locations as well as on the Clean Waves website, the futuristic style echo M.I.A. ‘s own boundary-pushing style. The oversized, shield-style sunglasses feature interchangeable Zeiss lenses in contrasting colours, so that you can switch up the violet with a deeper purple, or the scarlet red for a deep navy.
Clean Waves x M.I.A Interchangeable-Lenses Parley Ocean Plastic® sunglasses
As with all sunglasses in the collection, the plastic used comes from waste collected from coastal communities around the world by Parley’s Global Cleanup Network, which is then handmade into the elegant frames in Italy using injection molding to minimize waste. All of the frames in the Clean Waves collection are also inscribed with GPS coordinates of the specific place on our planet you’re helping to protect, which you can then receive ongoing updates about, to keep track of the efforts to protect these beautiful and endangered remote planets.
The M.I.A. Clean Waves collection is available exclusively online at cleanwaves.com, at Selfridges in London and in select Dover Street Market locations globally.
