TOKYO – Tiger Beer, Asia’s number one international premium beer, has unveiled the Rare Stripes collection at the KENZO store at Ginza Six in Tokyo, Japan. The collection represents a unique partnership between WWF in collaboration with iconic French fashion house KENZO to raise awareness of endangered wild tigers.
Talking to guests and media at the launch event, Venus Teoh, International Brand Director for Tiger Beer, shared: “True to our spirit of uncaging creativity and providing a platform for emerging talent to the world, Tiger Beer has brought together our partner WWF, the co-creative directors of KENZO, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, and four handpicked young artists to create the limited edition Rare Stripes collection.”
“This collection is another one of the ways we’re raising global awareness and funds for endangered wild tigers. We want people to take action to save the wild tigers, our beloved brand icon, from extinction,” she continued.
Michael Baltzer, Leader of Tigers Alive Initiative (WWF) added: “Every day we see tigers used in popular culture – in fashion motifs, on premium products and on billboards. Yet, tigers in the wild are in danger of becoming extinct. WWF is a leader in an ambitious global effort to double wild tigers but the tiger needs every help it can get. We are therefore delighted to have this powerful partnership with Tiger Beer and KENZO. We hope it sets a new wave of action and awareness from other brands for wild tigers.”
KENZO’s co-creative directors, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim and the four emerging artists that designed the collection were also present to launch the collection. Urging guests to lend their support to the cause, Humberto shared: “Carol and I had been hoping to work with WWF for some time and we were delighted that Tiger Beer brought us together. We hope our collaboration with WWF and these four great artists for this important cause will inspire people around the world to learn more about saving wild tigers. The reality is that if we don’t take action now, we could very easily lose these animals forever.”
The four artists hailing from Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States also drew inspiration from their trip to Cambodia where they worked closely with Leon and Lim to design the collection and heard from Phurba Lendhup, a WWF Wildlife Specialist from Bhutan, first-hand about the plight of wild tigers.
The launch event, which hosted over 150 guests and members of the media, provided an exclusive preview of the eight unique designs available for sale in the collection, aptly displayed within coat hangers fashioned out of snare wire traditionally used in poaching, in a bid to further drive home the plight of wild tigers.
The Rare Stripes collection officially dropped at 3pm on July 21, with a limited number available via selected KENZO retail stores internationally from the beginning of August. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the collection, which is made using Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) compliant organic cotton, will go to WWF in support of doubling the world’s wild tiger population.
This is the second year of a six-year partnership between Tiger Beer and WWF to support WWF’s global efforts in tiger conservation. The first year of the WWF partnership featured the successful #3890Tigers campaign, which invited people from around the world to pledge against illegal tiger trade by merging their ‘selfies’ with one of six bespoke tiger artworks created by global artists using the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology.
For more information about the Tiger Beer x WWF partnership, their collaboration with KENZO and the Rare Stripes collection, please visit http://tigerbeer.com/rarestripes and #rarestripes.
In main photo, From L-R: Illustrator and designer Esther Goh (Singapore), illustrator and printmaker Julienne Tan (Cambodia), co-creative directors of KENZO Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, contemporary artist and sculptor Meryl Smith (USA) and visual and digital artist Sean Lean (Malaysia)
