Plastic waste reincarnates to sexy bikini’s

If old plastic soda bottles could choose, bets are on they would all want to be reincarnated as one of Cape Town designer Gabrielle Kool’s swimwear designs.

All the fabric Kool uses in her garments are manufactured using recycled plastic, and a good portion of this is made from waste collected on beaches. The fabric woven from the waste is called Repreve.

Gabrielle Swimwear, Kool’s brand, is a marriage between her love for bikinis, beachwear and her passion for the ocean and the environment. She started her business at 26, a decade ago, with the idea that looking great on the beach should be paired with a sense of responsibility towards nature.

She said: “It was very important to me to create a brand that would be sustainable and have a lower impact on the environment, too”

Now a Capetonian but originally a Durban native, she has spent her life close to the ocean. Kool’s background influenced the direction of her career. She said: “I have an environmentalist mom and a dad who loves the ocean. He taught me how to surf at sixteen and at home I was always taught to respect and love nature.” Her love of flora was also inherited from her mom. She added: “My mom has a strong passion for indigenous plants and flowers and the nature it brings.”

Kool’s fabric print-designs feature the florals and plants she loves dearly. And it is all indigenous. “We have such an incredibly rich natural heritage in South Africa and designing a new collection every year demands a lot of reflection and tender loving care. In fact, I am so passionate about it that I end up never discarding previous collections, and I just keep building on each collection, year after year. I have ended up with an exceptionally large range of designs due to this.”

Gabrielle Swimwear offers one-piece swimsuits, bikini bottoms, bikini sets as well as bralettes and a collection of summery beachy wear that never goes out of style. By her own admission, Kool never follows trends, but is cognisant of the more-skin-the-better beach looks. Ten years ago, when she first tried selling some show-off bottoms in South Africa, the market was not ready. She said: “South Africans were a bit more conservative then, but today G-strings and Brazilian bottoms are some of my best sellers. It is all about the booty right now.”

Swimwear is not the easiest stock and trade online. Kool said because women’s garments, especially swimwear, is not a one size fits all some customers could be reticent to purchase online due to sizing and complexity of fit. She has remedied that with a free-exchange policy online while building a bricks and mortar distribution network through boutiques and specialist stores. She said: “South Africans are starting to shop online more frequently, there is a lot of potential, but service and quality, most of all becoming a trusted brand, are important aspects of e-commerce success.”

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The beach-life is where it is at for Kool. She opened a store in Sri-Lanka recently and commutes between the Mother City and Colombo. Her store is situated in a tourism and surfing hotspot called Hiriketiya on the south of the island. She said: “I just found this beautiful bay and I thought it would be the perfect place to showcase my swimwear and at the same time, be able to also offer that opportunity to other brands that I really appreciate and respect, that has the same environmental ethos as mine, to be able to give them the opportunity too. And so far, it has been doing really, well. There has been an amazing response.” Kool’s store stocks other South African brands and local Sri Lankan labels.

She said tourism is a growth industry on the island despite its recent political and economic challenges. Sri Lanka has become one of the fastest growing tourist attractions in the world and her brand is gaining significant traction amongst jetsetters, she said.

“At the same time, I am able to live my dream,” living near the beach in Cape Town and on a tropical island, surfing the waves.”