Katherine Mackenzie-Yates

My final year project began with a 9-week enterprise unit, where I created NetZero Swimwear—a sustainability-led start-up turning recycled ocean fishing nets into conscious swimwear. Within this short timeframe, I developed a full business plan, sourced ethical manufacturers, secured fabric, mapped out logistics, costed financials, and built a supply partnership with the Anglers’ National Line Recycling Scheme for our net material.

Building on this foundation, I chose to realise my PR campaign through a visual social media launch for my “Realising my Tactic” unit. The campaign became a bold, politically expressive response to the damage of abandoned fishing nets, which is also my USP. This is communicated through abstract fashion imagery and Gen Z-targeted storytelling.

The aim: To reinvent swimwear through visual storytelling, inspiring audiences to consume with purpose, and forging a deeper connection to the original identity of their clothing.

Inspired by designers like Hussein Chalayan and the surreal, sculptural textures of 1960s photography, I developed a campaign that blends activism, fashion, and emotion. The net—our central symbol—cocoons the body, representing both sea life entrapment and the potential for regeneration.

The campaign was amplified through an Instagram and TikTok content series, a bespoke logo, a digital website landing page, and a feature in a BA Fashion Journalism column. It reflects not only the brand’s message, but also the rapid entrepreneurial and creative skills I developed to bring it to life—across just nine weeks.

This is the beginning of NetZero Swimwear, and a personal milestone in aligning purpose with practice.