Photo: Angelo Virag, Luka Ašanin
With a collaboration with Krie Design, ACI, the largest marina chain in the Mediterranean, is planning to start another new trend oriented towards encouraging positive changes that will ensure environmental protection in Croatia
For centuries, the Adriatic Sea, with its crystal clear waters and rich in marine life, has been a source of inspiration for artists and designers. Lately, this inspiration has spilled into the fashion world, with an ever increasing number of designers turning to sustainable practices and materials to create collections that are both beautiful and environmentally friendly. By using waste material and giving it a new, more valuable purpose, they are making a real ecological statement. On a more philosophical level, this trend can be seen as a wake-up call to the world to change the way of life dominated by consumerism and hyperproduction.
The Croatian designer Kristina Burja set the standards of sustainability in the fashion industry almost 10 years ago. In 2016, her Krie Design was selected as the only brand in the region to promote sustainability in the fashion industry with the Green Fashion Week project, sponsored by the UN. A year later, Kristina was the only Croatian representative in Rome to participate in a panel discussion on sustainable development in the fashion industry, and in 2020, she presented her own work in the Croatian Pavilion at the Dubai Expo, exhibiting the very popular Bow dress.
In 2023, Kristina Burja started a new admirable ecological project with Božidar Blaslov, a fisherman from the town of Kali on the island of Ugljan. Thanks to the innovative collaboration between the Krie Design brand and the Provir project, fishing nets that were polluting the Adriatic Sea have become raw material to produce a fibre, used in making sustainable clothing. To crown their collaboration, the third Krie Design collection made of ECONYL® was created, inspired by fishermen who offered solutions to reuse nylon waste. The Krie X Provir collection consists of a line of casual, sports clothes, while other Krie Design collections made of ECONYL® offer elegant items of clothing. In addition, each item of the Krie x Provir clothing has an NFC chip that can provide you with information on the project.
It is worth mentioning that Božidar informed the fishing community about the initiative, and, within a year, 21 tonnes of discarded fishing nets were hauled from the sea. In the future, an application called Provir Sea.R.C.H. will help locate the waste.
