Iskur Brings Its Own Slant to Responsible Denim
Recognizing denim’s range and opportunity for innovation, Turkey’s Iskur Group decided to expand beyond knits and wovens into denim fabric production, too.
And so far, it’s been a good decision for the company—one that taps into the increasingly global way of the world and the denim worn within in.
Carved in Blue caught up with Iskur’s head of product development Özlem Özkan, who’s also responsible for Iskur Denim’s sustainable innovations, to see what’s up next for the fabric maker.
Carved in Blue: Can you tell us a little more about Iskur Denim?
Özlem: In 2016 Iskur Denim has started production and sales operations with its new denim production plant facilities in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey and with a marketing team in Istanbul.
Carved in Blue: What made the company decide to go into denim production in addition to knit and wovens?
Özlem: The denim industry is, apart from home textiles, the strongest segment and provides the biggest global business volume which is approximately 6.5 billion meters annually overall. Denim is the fabric of intelligence and innovation—our aim is to bring our heritage and knowledge from our textile business to develop a responsible denim mill brand for future.
Carved in Blue: How different is the denim business compared with other textiles?
Özlem: It has become completely global with borderless decision chains, final customers, nominators, garment makers, buying offices, fabric suppliers.
Carved in Blue: What’s Iskur’s specialty?
Özlem: Iskur Denim has a dynamic structure and strong communication skills with an insight for sustainability and social responsibility. These values make us a good team player for all brands and manufacturers who wants to be at the same approach. We have strong heritage from textile and now we have a new dynamic structure too, this makes us advantageous in both ways.
Carved in Blue: How do you see the future of the denim industry?
Özlem: It will remain as the strongest segment in textiles for sure as jeans are ‘timeless’ and have become a standard garment of daily life and not only leisure any more. It’s getting stronger in many other areas like ready to wear, outdoor, active wear so on. We will see more new developments and a fabric which is changing its face all the time besides, sustainability, will be the headline for all these developments. The only thing which is not changing will be the change.
Carved in Blue: How important is sustainability for Iskur?
Özlem: Being a strategic marketing tool for key markets, sustainability has also become a global necessity for the future of our industry. In particular the protection and conscious consumption of water as a short resource have become essential for all of us. WAW concept, Waterless Dyeing Process, saving 80% water in production is our sustainable innovation concept. Additionally we also care about how we do our production, by using solar energy and co-generation platforms to minimize carbon foot print. Social responsibility is also another important point for us, sustainability is also about supporting locals, to do so we support education by creating modern and peaceful educational buildings in our area.
Carved in Blue: How has TENCEL™ played into Iskur’s offering?
Özlem: We have selected fabrics with TENCELTM Lyocell in our collections as using sustainable materials is a must for all denim or non-denim fabric manufacturers. We are looking for new ways to give a wider range for the developments with TENCELTM Lyocell.
Carved in Blue: A little about you now—what’s the one denim item in your closet you can’t live without?
Özlem: Definitely my jeans, they are stylish yet comfortable and easy to style for all occasion.
Carved in Blue: Are there influencers in the denim industry that inspire you?
Özlem: Global market leaders, global brands, trend setters…
Carved in Blue: What do you think the denim industry is missing today?
Özlem: Innovation in raw material and finishing processes, fair competition in raw material sourcing, giant suppliers like Invista.
Carved in Blue: What does Carved in Blue mean to you?
Özlem: Inspiring! A place to give a nice break and have quality time by learning new and cool stuff about the industry. Seems to be a unifying platform for sharing knowledge and gathering denim professionals and enthusiasts who work to make a better denim world.