Joining forces with the Swedish eyewear brand EOE and utilising its trailblazing 'Regrind' process, Balenciaga releases a selection of sunnies that are entirely crafted from old, repurposed shades
Swedish EOE Eyewear accomplished something many emerging brands can only dream of: a collaboration with a major luxury house. Teaming up with Balenciaga, they have produced a selection of sustainable sunglasses, leveraging EOE Eyewear’s innovative ‘Regrind’ process. This process repurposes discarded eyewear, achieving a groundbreaking 98 per cent recycling rate while simultaneously developing a pioneering bio-circular acetate material.
“Along the almost 15 years that we have worked with eyewear, we noticed that the eyewear industry, in general, was ill-equipped to work with sustainability – besides the massive amounts of waste needed to produce new pairs, all surplus and discarded eyewear often ended up in landfills or got burnt,” explains Emilia Lindmark, CEO and co-founder of EOE Eyewear. “We needed to innovate – to think differently.” It was from this commitment that Regrind was born, with the potential to substantially impact eco-friendliness in the eyewear sphere, all while introducing a brand new, closed-loop material boasting unlimited possibilities in terms of colour, pattern, and usage.
The Balenciaga x Regrind sunnies in action. Photo: The LN-CC / Balenciaga
Photo: The LN-CC / Balenciaga
Driven to find a partner who shared their vision and keen to make a difference in the highly polluting fashion industry, EOE Eyewear approached Kering (the parent company of Balenciaga, known for placing sustainability at the core of its strategy). “Three years ago we reached out to them and they replied quite quickly,” says Lindmark. “After going through multiple steps, Demna [Gvasalia, the creative director of Balenciaga] approved the material, in colourways that our designer Camilla Lindberg created with their collections as a starting point.”
The result? Sleek, futuristic sunglasses that perfectly align with Balenciaga’s edgy design DNA. Debuting this autumn, the collaboration marks a step toward a more eco-conscious future that hopefully sparks a shift in the fashion industry, too.
The sunglasses are now available on balenciaga.com