Sustainable fashion brand RÆBURN has teamed up with CUPRA for an epic collaboration that celebrates sustainability, style, and performance. To mark CUPRA’s first fully electric vehicle, RÆBURN has designed a bespoke wrap for the car, featuring their iconic parachute design in a geometric pattern of bright orange and brown shades. The wrap highlights CUPRA sporty lines and showcases its commitment to sustainability.
But they’re not stopping there, RÆBURN has also created a fully sustainable fashion piece using SEAQUAL® YARN, a material made from recycled marine litter. The two-piece outfit incorporates RÆBURN’s signature parachute material and embodies their RÆMADE ethos of upcycling surplus fabrics and garments. The fashion piece, which will be on display at the RÆBURN Lab in Hackney until the new year, showcases the CUPRA Born’s commitment to sustainability and style. According to Chris Raeburn, Creative Director at RÆBURN, ‘Everything I create is designed to be stylish, responsible, and practical, so I was really excited to work with a brand like CUPRA that echoes this in everything they do. It’s been really interesting learning about the sustainable materials used in the all-electric CUPRA Born and working with these to create a bespoke piece.” Head of Marketing at CUPRA UK, Andy McGregor, added, ‘At CUPRA, we delight in challenging car industry norms; and when it came to the creation of our first all-electric CUPRA Born, it was important that we explored every possible way to optimise its sustainability credentials. We’re delighted to offer the customer a choice of recycled interiors with reformed plastic sea waste in SEAQUAL® Yarn and also recycled polyesters. CUPRA is fast becoming known for its standout design too, so partnering with a sustainable studio like RÆBURN was the perfect fit. We hope this collaboration will amplify just how powerful, sustainable, and stylish all-electric mobility can be!”
Head below to find out more…
What inspired you to collaborate with CUPRA on the collection?
CUPRA is a brand that has been on my radar for a while, so I was thrilled when they approached me to collaborate on this campaign. I had the opportunity to drive the new fully electric CUPRA Born earlier this year, and was really impressed with how it drove and the overall look and feel of the car. There are many synergies between CUPRA and RAEBURN so it was a no-brainer when they asked me if I would be interested in designing an exclusive wrap of the car and a fashion item to bring those synergies in fashion and automotive to life.
How did you marry your signature style with the signature style of CUPRA?
CUPRA is all about a celebration of performance, style and sustainability in fashion and automotive so there’s a great synergy with RÆBURN and our mission to change the world through responsible design. Ultimately the partnership has been born out of both brands’ passion for creating powerful, stylish and responsible pieces.
What was the most challenging aspect of producing the RÆBURN x CUPRA collection?
We started the process by first constructing a Remade “art piece” at the RÆBURN Lab in Hackney from original parachutes; we’re used to working with fabrics but then developing the car “wrap” was a bit of an unknown but we were fortunate to work with the specialists at CUPRA to really elevate the final design.
How do you think this collaboration will shape the future of fashion?
I hope we’ll see more cross-industry collaborations as we all need to work together to make positive change; hopefully our partnership resonates, gets people talking and helps to move the dial in the right direction.
Do you have any other collaborations in mind?
I’d be really interested to see how we can continue to develop our partnership with CUPRA and I’m particularly interested in the innovations happening with electric vehicles / so It would be great to see how much further we might be able to push on the material side to continue the journey.
How did the sustainability aspect of the collection come into play whilst designing the pieces?
Sustainability has been in the DNA of everything we do at RÆBURN since 2009 so we worked with original parachutes which were mixed with SEAQUAL® Yarn which is a material made of recycled marine litter from the Mediterranean, that’s used in all CUPRA interiors – including the bucket seats in the CUPRA Born – by bringing together the best of our two iconic materials we were able to create something truly unique.
Could you tell us more about the overall design process for the collection?
We wanted to create something truly unique for the partnership so firstly we took original air brake and pilots parachutes to create a trouser and a shirt; SEAQUAL® fabric was used to line the trouser and provide detailing for the shirt. The pieces are completely bespoke, made only for this partnership and we’re not looking to repeat them!
Beyond that, we were able to create a wrap of the CUPRA Born using our iconic parachute design, overlaid across bright shades of orange and brown in a geometric pattern, emphasising the electric car’s sporty lines
How does the RÆBURN x CUPRA collection stand out from other fashion collaborations?
I’d like to think what we’ve created together is truly unique, and has been born from the authentic parachutes and Remade approach that’s developed into an elevated aesthetic for the wrap.
What would you say to any aspiring designer looking to create a fashion collaboration?
I think it’s really important to take the best of your DNA and truly do something unique when you collaborate with others.
What is next for you?
We’re proud to be displaying the fashion pieces at the RÆBURN Lab in Hackney throughout December and then as we look to the new year and the launch of our new collections we’re excited to see how our store on Marshall Street, Carnaby will continue to develop.