Kenzo Debuts A New Tiger Logo – And A Partnership With The World Wildlife Fund To Double The Wild Tiger Population

Getting through all eight episodes of Tiger King – you know, the Netflix series that defined the early days of quarantine back in March – was something of a feat. You could certainly find the entertainment value in Joe Exotic’s “cowboy drag” wardrobe, his charisma, and his ongoing feud with Carole Baskin, but only if you could get also past the show’s more troubling qualities. If Exotic’s metallic shirts proved too distracting, the series ended with a laundry list of sobering facts about the tiger population – namely that more tigers live in captivity (in zoos and “rescue centres” like Exotic’s and Baskin’s as well as in private homes) in the United States than in the wild. Due to illegal trade and habitat destruction, the world’s population of wild tigers has declined by 95 per cent in the past century to just 3,200, pushing the species to the brink of extinction.

Beyond that crushing detail, their dwindling numbers have a vast ripple effect: As predators at the top of the food chain, tigers play an important role in maintaining balance in forest ecosystems, which support thousands of other species and people too.

All of this was on Felipe Oliveira Baptista’s mind last year when he joined Kenzo, the French label known for its distinctive tiger logo. One of his first tasks was to redesign it, and he’d recently come across an article about the World Wildlife Fund’s efforts to double the global tiger population by 2022. Baptista reached out to the WWF to discuss a collaboration, and the first capsule is debuting today: T-shirts, hoodies, and “essential garments” in GOTS-certified organic cotton (the worldwide textile-processing standard for organic fibres) printed with Kenzo’s new tiger, with $10 from every purchase going to the WWF. A new capsule will drop every six months to continue driving support for the cause.

“If I can help raise awareness in our industry, which is responsible for some of this environmental damage, I think it’s vital,” Baptista says, adding that the clothes were sustainably dyed and printed with water-based inks. Further to that, he’s pushing himself and his team to embrace sustainable alternatives throughout Kenzo’s offering, from recycled and organic materials to plastic-free packaging, and will work with the WWF to improve Kenzo’s cotton supply chain and freshwater footprint. Baptista’s upcoming show at Paris Fashion Week, which will take place outdoors on September 30 with a small audience, will also debut a scaled-down collection that puts sustainability at the fore. “I think now is the time to be very pragmatic, but also very creative,” he adds.

This project follows a similar one Baptista launched as the creative director of Lacoste back in 2018: a collection of polos featuring endangered species in place of the brand’s signature crocodile logo, like the Iberian lynx and the Hawaiian monk seal, with a percentage of proceeds supporting the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “It goes beyond fashion,” he says. “I think customers are becoming more and more sensitive to this too, and will demand [action] in the future. We have to question everything we’re doing, and it all starts with one step.”