The 2016 Olympics are occurring right now in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Olympics kick started the competition this Friday, and ever since the athletes have been working hard to prepare for victory. The company called H&M made a huge statement with the outfit for the Swedish flag bearer. The bold and beautiful outfit was all about sustainability.
The reason for the environmentally conscious outfit was the city Rio itself. The Olympics have drawn attention towards how polluted the ocean surrounding Rio is. With tons of human waste dumping into it every day, the ocean is a breeding ground for bacteria. Olympians have had and will continue to go into the waters of Rio in order to compete. Special precautions have been taken in order to provide some amount of safety towards rowers.
H&M was then inspired to truly encourage conscientiousness of the environment. The outfit was designed to be made of navy fabric and an organic type of silk. The layers of the dress would consist mainly of recycled articles of clothing. The top would also have a hood perhaps to show athleticism. The colors of the outfit would be blue and yellow like the Swedish flag.
The company H&M originally signed the contract with the Swedish Olympic team back in 2013. Since then they were designing all sorts of clothing for all aspects of the games. This included the opening and closing ceremonies, the sports, and travel. Much thought is applied in the way the Olympians present themselves even off the field. H&M is also based in Sweden so it all really makes sense.
The company would like their sports team to represent their own country. They are both similar to teams in the sense that they want Sweden to succeed. Yet one is a company and the other is a sports team. H&M has worked very hard to design an array of different products for usage during the Olympics. They designed and created sports wear, travel gear, as well as travel kits.
The fashionable items feature facts about Sweden and the flag colors. The most amazing part about the line is that most of it has been created from sustainable materials. This shows that H&M cares about the environment and is attempting to better their production practices. The other representation that is present is the support of the Swedish Olympians. With them being sustainable it could encourage the public to be more aware of the environment.
According to wwd.com “H&M said it collected 12,000 tons of textiles for reuse last year, the equivalent of 65 million T-shirts.” Yet H&M has produced other environmentally conscientious fashion lines. One can hope that in the future companies can do more to be environmentally friendly. Though the issue at this time is protecting the environment long enough to develop suitable techniques. With H&M creating the sustainable clothing lines this can provide some of that research.
Companies taking the step towards helping the environment is a welcomed one. H&M also has an environmentally friendly line called the “Conscious Collection”. Many of the materials used within the line are organic cottons, leather, and other recycled products. Even the accessories in the line are created from recycled plastics. The collection includes all types of wear from casual to formal pieces.
H&M appears to be trying to offer something for everyone. This means that many people with different senses of styles can all shop sustainably. Helping the environment is always a great thing to do. It is good to see a large scale company taking the steps into being more conscientious of their effect on the world. Over time, hopefully, more companies can adopt more sustainable forms of production and management.
