While Kingpins New York is kicking off today, lots of new colabs will take the scene. Among the coolest projects there is Camo For Peace, a debuting collaboration between Tonello, an Italian highly specialized treating technology manufacturer, and Maurizio Donadi, a longtime expert and insider of the denim and sportswear scene, as well as creative director of Champion Europe.
The collaboration also draws on Donadi’s Transnomadica’s archive of nearly 15,000 vintage military garments. For the initiative, they reworked some camouflage surplus and pieces from the designer’s archive, dyed, washed, and reinterpreted them using Tonello’s most innovative garment finishing technologies.
Camo For Peace is not presented as a fashion collection or a commercial collaboration, but it bears two main messages. On the one side, each item of the capsule carries the message to let peace prevail despite various ongoing wars worldwide, despite them belonging to the military apparel category. On the other side, these garments have been rescued from landfill by giving them a new life, in keeping with Tonello and Donadi’s approach to preserving the environment, as the most sustainable apparel pieces are the ones that already exist.
“There’s something special about a message you can wear every day. Inspired by nature and brought to life through technology and creativity, these garments remind us that peace, like freedom, begins with the choices we make,” comments Alice Tonello, chief brand & strategy officer, Tonello.
“Nature invented camouflage so that life could coexist. We borrowed it for war. With Camo For peace, we are simply giving it back its first purpose: to live in harmony with the environment and with one another,” adds Maurizio Donadi, founder, Transnomadica.
Also debuting at Kingpins NY is “Botanical Alchemy—Part II: Still Blooming,” the continuation of Tonello’s collaboration with MN Dye Studio. Six months ago they sealed together garments, natural dye ingredients, and plant-based waste inside vacuum bags. The pieces will now be revealed, showing how nature, temperature, and time continued to work long after the bags were closed.
This other project shows Tonello’s commitment exploring new paths looking for lower impact products and finishings.