Lenzing & Candiani Combine Material Innovations in Denim Collaboration
TENCEL™ lyocell is a great blending partner for hemp, but a new collaboration between Lenzing and Candiani takes this combination to a new level. Lenzing has created a Limited Edition TENCEL™ lyocell fiber that uses hemp as a portion of the pulp input, replacing some wood content.
Hemp is gaining attention in denim as a substitute for cellulosic materials like cotton since it has a low-impact environmental profile. By utilizing the waste from the hemp plant, cellulose is turned into pulp. It is this hemp pulp which is blended with wood pulp and then goes through the closed-loop lyocell production process, to produce quality and durable TENCEL™ lyocell fibers. Waste can be an asset to make a new product within circular business models.
This collaboration is part of nonprofit organization Canopy’s CanopyStyle initiative. “It’s exciting to see Lenzing expand its Next Gen product offering by making a man made cellulosic textile with 20 percent hemp pulp, a plant that grows fast and fixes carbon back into degraded soils,” said Nicole Rycroft, founder and executive director of Canopy. “Scaling innovations that use lower-footprint feedstocks like this will help take the sourcing pressure off vital forests and promote climate action. Next Gen Solutions are the future of man made cellulosic fiber production.”
For this project, this special TENCEL™ lyocell fiber was blended with Candiani’s Coreva biodegradable stretch material. As opposed to synthetics that will stay in landfills for hundreds of years, Coreva will break down. By combining the stretch material with TENCEL™ lyocell, it creates fully biodegradable denim fabric.
“In a world where resources are dwindling and there is an unmanageable excess of clothing to be disposed of, it is everyone’s duty to look to sustainable consumption and production, with maximum attention to renewable resources, biodegradable and compostable materials,” said Alberto Candiani, president of Candiani Denim. “The world of denim must be at the forefront of this revolution, and we are excited to be able to collaborate with international companies such as Lenzing and to be able to share our innovation and our values with the rest of the fashion industry.”
The material is being fashioned into an oversize women’s denim shirt that will be produced in a run of 50 and available exclusively at Candiani’s Coreva Design Store in Milan. Consumers can also get personalized jeans made with the material through Candiani’s Custom Microfactory in Milan.
This latest limited-edition creation is part of a broader initiative by Lenzing to push the boundaries of material innovation. “As consumers increasingly regard sustainability as important purchase consideration, the textile industry needs to act swiftly to offer solutions,” said Caroline Ledl, head of product management textiles at the Lenzing Group. “We invented the TENCEL™ Limited Edition initiative in 2021 to explore the use of alternative raw materials, such as hemp or orange pulp, in textile production. We wanted to push the traditional boundaries of fiber production by leveraging natural resources. We value working with like-minded companies, such as Candiani Denim, who have similar environmental goals to ours and we are excited to see what customers think about products made with this new TENCEL™ Limited Edition hemp fiber.”