Mill Memo: South American Producers on Cotton-Free and Circular Denim
Increasingly, mills are thinking beyond virgin cotton for denim. This might mean cottonless denim with materials like TENCEL™ Lyocell or hemp, or a mix of recycled textiles and wood-based fibers. Carved in Blue checked in with the TENCEL™ mill customers to chat about their cotton-free collections and circular fabrics.
Read on to hear from Canatiba and Vicunha.
CANATIBA
Fábio Covolan, marketing director
Carved in Blue: Do you have a ‘No Cotton Denim’ fabric?
Fábio: Our “No Cotton Denim” fabrics include our Maxskin Line: Juliette Maxskin 600/2433 (100 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 6.5 oz.) and Artemis Maxskin 600/2447 (49 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 30 percent modal indigo, 21 percent viscose, 8.0 oz.).
Carved in Blue: For denim fabrics, what are you offering in TENCEL™ Lyocell for volume priced orders? What is your common TENCEL™ Denim base fabric?
Fábio: All Canatiba fabrics that use TENCEL™ fiber we consider to be differentiated, due to the properties that the fiber promotes, such as touch, shine, fit and comfort. In addition to the No Cotton Denim fabrics mentioned earlier, we have several articles that use TENCEL™ Lyocell in the composition, combined with other fibers, such as cotton, polyester and elastane.
Some are Powerful Maxskin 500/4427 (67 percent cotton, 32 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 1 percent spandex, 9.5 oz.); Maxskin Chair 500/4430 (64 percent cotton, 34 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 2 percent spandex, 7.5 oz.); Le Bourget Maxskin 500/4436 (72 percent cotton, 26 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 2 percent elastane, 9.0 oz.); and Le Bourget Maxskin Dark 500/4437 (72 percent cotton, 26 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 2 percent elastane, 9.0 oz.).
We have a number of fabrics that launched in October, including Algocel Maxskin 500/4473 (64 percent cotton, 34 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 2 percent spandex, 10.5 oz.); Montero Black Maxskin 500/4476 (77 percent cotton, 21 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 2 percent spandex, 10.5 oz.); Montero Maxskin 500/4477 (77 percent cotton, 21 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 2 percent spandex, 10.5 oz.); T.P-Flex 500/4485 (62 percent cotton, 18 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 18 percent polyester, 2 percent elastane, 10.0 oz.); T.P-Flex Black 500/4486 (62 percent cotton; 18 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 18 percent polyester, 2 percent elastane, 10.0 oz.); Wikings 500/4491 (64 percent cotton, 18 percent polyester, 16 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 2 percent spandex, 10.0 oz.); Wikings Black 500/4492 (64 percent cotton, 18 percent polyester, 16 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 2 percent spandex, 10.0 oz.); and Nikita Maxskin 500/45XX (66 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 34 percent cotton, 11.5 oz.).
Carved in Blue: Circularity is the next frontier. What have you developed with mechanical recycled cotton and TENCEL™ Lyocell?
Fábio: We use recycled cotton and recycled TENCEL™ Lyocell, all mechanically, for Resiklo Éko 600/2165 (68 percent cotton, out of which 32 percent is recycled cotton, 32 percent recycled TENCEL™ Lyocell).
VICUNHA
Renata Guarniero, marketing manager
Carved in Blue: Do you have a ‘No Cotton Denim’ fabric?
Renata: No, all our articles with TENCEL™ Lyocell contain cotton.
Carved in Blue: For denim fabrics, what are you offering in TENCEL™ Lyocell for volume priced orders? What is your common TENCEL™ Denim base fabric?
Renata: All articles in denim color that carry TENCEL™ Lyocell are differentiated articles, treated as premium due to their composition, which deliver a differentiated touch to the final product and allow great versatility in the collections that are applied.
In denim, we launched with TENCEL™ Lyocell the Enrico article, with 85 percent cotton, 9 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell, 5 percent elastomultiester polyester and 1 percent elastane.
This is woven with Dual Core yarn technology, bringing for the first time this type of yarn with TENCEL™ Lyocell fiber in its composition, TENCEL™ Lyocell by Lenzing. It is also approved by Lycra with Lycra Xtra Life technology, which has stretch above 30 percent, a low rate of laceration and low rate of shrinkage in home washing. Developed for the V.Moove Fit line, it has a soft touch, comfort, shape maintenance and special dye dyeing with a characteristic of intense blue. Enrico, by the way, is one of the releases that was at the latest Kingpins.
Another currently offered article is Zara, made of 65 percent cotton and 35 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell.
It’s a biodegradable pure indigo denim produced with wood cellulosic fiber TENCEL™ technology, providing high shine and soft touch.