Happy Earth Day! As a Southern California-based brand with a design and production ethos consistently inspired by the beauty of nature and the sea, an earth-friendly mindset has been at our core since day one. We’ve been setting the bar for sustainable swim worldwide for years, and we’ve continued to innovate every year, perfecting each of our fabrics and production processes to make each of them as sustainable and efficient as possible, while maintaining the very best in quality and comfort.
Our design team works hard within these parameters, consistently using conservative and regenerative processes to continue creating the finest swimwear, beachwear, and knits.
To celebrate Earth Day, we sat down with our Director of Product Design to learn more about the design process at Vitamin A, and how nature, the earth, and sustainability all play a role in how our collections come to life.
Q: What’s your name, your role, and how long have you been with Vitamin A?
A: My name is Jess Murray and I am the Director of Product Design. I have been with Vitamin A collectively for about 10 years.
Q: Where does the initial idea for a collection begin?
A: Inspiration for the collections can really come from anywhere; a trip I take, a piece of art I love. Most of the time I get inspired just being outside in nature.
Q: What are some things you do to incorporate that inspiration into a physical product?
A: Nature inspires pretty much every aspect of my designs, from the colors to the patterns and textures. It could be a pattern I see on a shell that I then paint and turn into a print, or the color I pull from a natural rock formation.
Q: Tell us about Vitamin A’s fabrics—what makes them special? What makes them sustainable?
A: All of our swimwear fabrics are made from recycled materials. Our core fabrics, EcoLux and EcoRib are made from recycled nylon, and we also have versions of these fabrics made from recycled plastic bottles. I think what really makes our fabrics special is that we do not compromise the hand feel or the fit when our sustainable materials. You still get the buttery soft feel of high quality swim fabric, but it’s better for the planet.
We also introduced ReLux last year—this swim fabric is 100% recycled. This is very hard to find in the swim world, since the spandex presents some issues. The base yarn is crafted from recycled fishing nets, and the spandex is also recycled. By using recycled yarns we are reducing landfill waste and conserving resources.
All of our beachwear fabrics are natural or biobased, the majority being linen. Linen is incredibly sustainable because it takes much less water to grow than cotton and it decomposes naturally.
Q: What are some steps you have to take in the design process to ensure the final product is sustainable?
A: It all starts with the fabric. Ensuring that our fabric is sustainable and free of synthetics whenever possible is the first step. We use a digital printing process to print all our swim and beachwear which requires significantly less water than traditional printing techniques.
We also look at our excess materials and find new ways to use those so we are not creating any waste. This year we launched our $130 Bikini made from upcycled fabrics, essentially diverting fabric that would be destined for a landfill and giving it new life.
Q: What are some ways sustainability and quality go hand in hand?
A: I think that part of being sustainable is creating products that are timeless and have longevity. Fast fashion has a huge impact on our planet so creating product that is high quality and will therefore last is incredibly important in reducing waste.
Sustainability also includes fair labor practices so when you are paying fair wages and ensuring safe working environments you are receiving better quality control and workmanship in return.
Q: Vitamin A made one of the first recycled swimsuit fabrics ever in 2010–how has the brand continued to pave the way for sustainable swimwear?
A: We increased the amount of recycled fabrics in our line until we only had sustainable fabrics, completely eliminating 100% virgin fabrics from our brand.
I think just being consistent in voicing the need for recycled options has forced the fabric market to now include sustainable options—before, there were none.
Q: How is the team continuing to innovate and work toward even better sustainability? Are there things that have gotten easier to do sustainably?
A: I think in an ideal world we would have plastic-free swim, so that is what we are constantly working towards. Currently, we are working on reintroducing a bio-based fabric back into the line as well as exploring some interesting beachwear fabrics made from agricultural waste.
In some ways it has gotten easier to make sustainable collections— when Vitamin A first launched EcoLux, fabric vendors did not want to make recycled yarns and no one was really talking about sustainability. Now vendors all have at least one or two recycled yarns in their line, so it is easier to take a fabric idea and make the recycled version of it.
Q: What’s next for vitamin A? Any new initiatives or projects you want to talk about?
A: We will continue to introduce interesting fabrications and to bring our core sustainability values into other categories like the Effortless Essentials knitwear we just launched.
In addition, we’ll keep building up a community of like-minded creative individuals to collaborate with.