Fashion: Sustainable Underwear

David Adjaye for Pact [Ghana/Kenya]

More known for adding to a city skyline and working with more rigid materials, reknowned architect David Adjaye teamed up with US clothing manufacturer and retailer, PACT to design a collection of sustainable men’s and women’s underwear to benefit the Green Belt Movement. PACT’s partnership with the Green Belt Movement meant that 20 trees were planted for every pair sold during Earth Week, April 2010, as 100% of each sale was donated to the organisation. Following on from the Earth Week launch, 10% of the sale price for each pair is donated towards the initiative.

The Green Belt Movement was started in Kenya by 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Activist and Environmentalist, Dr Wangari Maathai in 1977, and has to date seen more than 40 million trees planted throughout Africa. An initiative working at grassroots level, the Green Belt Movement aimed to redress environmental damage and since its inception has evolved to encompass advocating for human rights, women’s empowerment and the support of good governance and peaceful democratic change.

The underwear is made from premium organic cotton, printed with David Adjaye’s specially commissioned ‘Green Belt’ print. The print was designed to evoke the spirit of renewal and hope; and has lush green tones forming the background and sees yellow-stemmed fig leaves, designed to echo the shape of the African continent, running through it.