Danone recruits Louis Vuitton’s Virgil Abloh to hammer home evian bottle second life message

11 Jan 2021 --- Virgil Abloh, artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s men’s wear collection, has designed a fully recyclable water bottle made from recycled PET (rPET) for Danone’s water bottle brand evian. 

Available from March in the US, the new bottle features a crushed hammered design effect representing the previous life of each bottle.

Abloh calls the design “a milestone” in evian’s environmental sustainability commitment as it is the first bottle in the US to be made fully from recycled materials.⁣

⁣The aim is for evian to be a circular brand by 2025, meaning all of its bottles will be made from 100 percent recycled and recyclable materials.

“It was a real challenge to take on the redesign of the evian bottle; an image which is so commonplace in our culture,” says Abloh.

“I wanted to create a shape that was as iconic as the evian brand, while representing how the product has been reinvented using old bottles.”

Abloh gave the new evian bottle a “crushed hammered design effect” that represents the previous life of each bottle. Sculpted from waste
Abloh announced the bottle launch via Forbes, revealing the water bottle is “an ultra profound concept” that can “tell the story of humanity.”

“I look at it as a sculpture. A 2.0 intervention onto an already compelling object with a compelling context – water being bottled.” Abloh first studied architecture in the US before entering the fashion industry.

“My new hammer motif reflects how this new design has been reconstructed from waste materials, which in itself was a whole new challenge, and a new step in my partnership with evian.”

The rPET bottle project marks Abloh’s fourth year as evian’s creative advisor for sustainable innovation design. Previous collaborations have yielded limited-edition, refillable glass bottles from the “One drop can make a Rainbow” range.

The announcement follows the launch of a 100 percent rPET range across European markets in September and evian’s first-ever label-free bottle released earlier in 2020 in France. 

“Challenge the status quo”
In the past two years, evian has been busy ramping up its environmental packaging credentials.

In July 2019, evian teamed up with recycling expert charity Recoup to supply the Wimbledon tennis championship with bottled water packaged in 100 percent rPET.

The Danone-owned water brand also introduced an at-home water appliance to reduce plastic in water packaging.

“It is now more important than ever to practice sustainability,” Abloh concludes. 

“I believe we all have the power to challenge the status quo and to change our future for the better.”

By Anni Schleicher