Start-up Beachwear Brand Kampos Joins Costa Smeralda Consortium
MILAN — Kampos, the start-up beachwear and resortwear brand launched earlier this year by Alessandro Vergano, a former Procter & Gamble and Swarovski employee, is taking its sustainable commitment a step further.
On Wednesday, the company revealed it is joining the Costa Smeralda consortium, a nonprofit association founded in 1962 and based in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, in the heart of the seaside resort area Costa Smeralda. Its aim is to protect the natural landscape and environment from gentrification and savage urbanization.
“Our brand’s roots come from an unconditional love for the Mediterranean sea and childhood memories of Costa Smeralda,” Vegano said. “It was essential for us to consolidate our heritage for our customers and our planet. The beauty of Costa Smeralda is magnificent, indefinable and magnetic, but it can only last if we make the commitment to protect and respect our environment.”
As part of the tie-up, all Kampos fashion pieces will immediately start to bear the Costa Smeralda consortium’s logo. The beachwear brand also plans to debut next spring a dedicated capsule collection to celebrate the collaboration. Some pieces in the lineup will reveal the Costa Smeralda logo when wet.
The partnership is part of the consortium’s tie-up with Milan’s prestigious SDA Bocconi University to develop a five-year sustainability plan for the area in line with the 2030 UN’s sustainable development goals.
“Kampos is an excellent example of how it is possible to combine business with environmental care, a model to follow for all members of the consortium,” noted Mario Ferraro, managing director of the association.
Kampos, which offers swimming trunks and bikinis, as well as a children’s wear range and a lineup of uncomplicated resortwear designs, such as cotton T-shirts and chino pants, employs mainly eco-friendly fabrics, including Aquafil’s Econyl obtained from plastic waste and Dentis’ New Life yarns made of recycled PET plastics.
The sustainable commitment extends beyond fabrics as Kampos avoids plastic packaging and allows customers to ship back worn garments to be recycled. It also pledges 5 percent of its revenues to One Ocean Foundation, a charity overseen by Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, Italy.
Last summer, the company debuted its first retail outpost inside Promenade du Port, a seafront retail complex located in Porto Cervo and plans to open two additional units in Sardinia by the summer of 2021.
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