Audi x Stella McCartney for future of sustainable design

MANILA: Audi has collaborated with noted English fashion designer Stella McCartney to showcase their shared focus on design and innovative sustainable solutions at the recent Design Shanghai 2021. In the event, a walk-in installation was displayed to provide insights on how the fashion and automotive industries can live in a sustainable way.

One of the items displayed was McCartney’s Falabella Go bag which is made from Econyl, a material purely composed of upcycled nylon fibers. These fibers were made from production waste, remains of fabrics and carpets, and old fishing nets.

Econyl is also used by Audi in the e-tron. The material is applied on the car’s carpet and floor mats. Aside from Econyl, the e-tron also contains other sustainable products. The car has a leather-free design package, in which the seats are wrapped with either a combination of artificial leather and Kaskade textile or a blend of artificial leather and Dinamica microfiber. Kaskade and Dinamica are mainly composed of polyester sourced from upcycled PET bottles, textiles, or fiber scraps.

Audi targets to become carbon neutral by 2050. The carmaker has not only been fast-tracking its transition to electric mobility, but is also executing a major decarbonization program throughout its sourcing of materials and production processes. The company has been applying a “closed loop” system in its supply chain and production to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption.

In this year’s Paris Fashion Week, McCartney launched a collection of mushrooms as the fashion designer promotes the “future of fashion.” The show featured trippy, mushroom-influenced ready-to-wear pieces, including a bag made entirely of “leather” sourced from laboratory-grown mushroom.

Just like McCartney, Audi’s adoption of innovative materials serves as a stepping stone in becoming carbon neutral. Its transformation into an electric mobility company aims to promote sustainability as the new luxury. Audi gears up to introduce this concept in the Philippines through the launch of the e-tron later this year.

Photos from Audi

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