Hyundai Motor unveils sustainable fashion collection from recycled car materials

Hyundai Motor Co. displayed fashion items made of discarded materials from the automotive manufacturing and scrapping process on Oct. 8, calling it a creative approach to sustainable fashion. 

The fashion collection, unveiled under the name of Re:Style 2020, includes jewelry, jumpsuits, working vests and bags, as well as various other clothing items. They were created in partnership with trendy fashion brands and leading design schools: Alighieri, E.L.V. DENIM, Public School, pushBUTTON, Richard Quinn and Rosie Assoulin. 

“Re:Style 2020 stems from the recognition that although most materials, such as iron and nonferrous metals, are currently recycled as part of the vehicle scrapping process, there are still some materials such as leather, glass and airbags that end up in landfill,” Hyundai said in a statement. 

For the project and its iteration in 2019, the carmaker collected various leftover materials with the help of various partners and sent them to the collaborating designers.

“At Hyundai Motor, we understand that ethical consumption and caring for the environment are increasingly important considerations of our customers in the post COVID-19 world,” said Wonhong Cho, Hyundai Motor’s global chief marketing officer, in the statement.

The company revealed the collection digitally on Hyundai’s social media channels and those of Selfridges, a UK-based chain of high-end department stores, as well as on the participating brands' channels from Oct. 8.

They will kick start sales of the fashion products at London’s Selfridges pop-up store and Selfridges online store on Oct. 13. The event will be also aligned with Project Earth, a symbolically sustainable campaign operated by Selfridges.
 
The sales will raise funds for the British Fashion Council’s Institute of Positive Fashion.

Hyundai aims to become the world’s third-largest automaker of eco-friendly vehicles by 2025, offering an innovative new lineup of battery-operated electric vehicles and fuel-cell electric vehicles.

yhkim@hankyung.com

[Edited by Yeonhee Kim]