TENCEL™ Denim Trends: The Latest from Mills in the Americas
Since in-person trade shows are still put on hold this fall, Carved in Blue is taking an opportunity to digitally connect with its community.
Conventional denim has a significant environmental footprint, but mills are innovating to create materials with less impact. This includes switching to alternatives or blends that include more eco-friendly fibers.
We caught up with denim mills in the Americas to hear their thoughts on low-impact denim and how they are incorporating wood-based TENCEL™ branded fibers into their collections.
CONE DENIM
Mexico
Pierette Scavuzzo, design director
Carved in Blue: What new groups are you promoting with TENCEL™?
Pierette: We have such an exciting range of TENCEL™ Lyocell offerings this season that is all quite different from one another: Indigo Revive, Sweet Leaf, and Cone Community. These three concepts are our strongest from the season. Indigo Revive combines a new innovative yarn created from upcycling our mill’s dye waste. We combine that with navy dyed modal, and what you get is a unique fade resist indigo effect denim with more of a workwear tone. Sweet Leaf is our hemp denim collection. Each of our fabrics in the Sweet Leaf collection blend hemp with TENCEL™ in the warp, creating a unique juxtaposition between hemp’s rustic nature and the softness that TENCEL™ Lyocell brings. Finally, our prized Cone Community collection features a few new ecru fabrics: cotton/ TENCEL ™ Modal—super soft with an excellent drape, both made with a pride rainbow selvage ID.
Carved in Blue: How do you define the value of lower impact denim?
Pierette: We consider lower impact denim fabrics that can promote circularity, come from biodegradable material, reduce water and chemical consumption. We are looking at every angle on how we can develop something relevant to consumers and make the most minimal impact. For example, our product Bodhi which is part of our Indigo Revive capsule, uses our internal dye waste to create a new yarn and blends that with navy dyed modal. This product approach reduces any additional dyeing and accounts for a 65 percent water savings. Another way is by practicing reducing waste in development, samples, and upcycling old garments and textiles to organizations that find another use for them. We examine our development processes and practices to ensure that everything we create is needed. Being more thoughtful and mindful in this step will have a significant impact on reducing waste, as textiles are one of the largest contributors
GLOBAL DENIM
Mexico
Anatt Finkler, creative director
Carved in Blue: What new groups are you promoting with TENCEL™ fibers?
Anatt: On the TENCEL™ Lyocell front, our Bluefeel group continues to expand, adding more denim styles with super soft qualities. We are bringing a new group called Circl. Circl is part of our Ecoloop program, as it includes new fabrics made of a blend of almost 100 percent recycled cotton yarn, made in house at our new recycled cotton facility from PCW (post-consumer waste) and PIW (post-industrial waste), and we are adding beautiful TENCEL™ Lyocell for added strength and softness. We are offering Circl fabrics both in rigid and with comfort stretch.
Circl includes its natural undyed version, showcasing a beautiful faded natural bluish grey, as well as its overdyed and dyed with indigo options. It is truly an amazing product based on eco-friendliness and sustainability, plus has lots of design capabilities both for the women and men’s market.
We are also expanding our Superflex collection by including for the first time fabrics with TENCEL™ Lyocell into this product category. These new fabrics have up to 50 percent stretch and amazing recovery.
Carved in Blue: How do you define the value of lower impact denim?
Anatt: Lower impact denim has to be defined starting all the way through how it is developed. It all starts with the simplest and yet challenging “design thinking.” When we develop a fabric with a lower environmental impact, apart from the fibers and responsible sourced raw materials, we usually think of the end life it’s going to have and the purpose it is going to fulfill. So starting from the very beginning, we create new solutions in dyeing, energy and water savings.
It is important to think of the full lifecycle. In the end we will all have to design thinking about circularity—which means there is no end life of a product, just new beginnings—and recyclability.
As mentioned above, the use of eco-friendly fibers is very important. That’s why we are proud of using TENCEL™ fibers, and we support the use of recycled fibers, such as our recycled cotton from our Ecoloop program.
Sustainability is a work in progress that can be improved every single day. There is no 100 percent sustainable, so we at Global Denim believe that we need to constantly push ourselves with efforts to be better every day.
TAVEX
Mexico
Arlethe Sánchez, marketing and sample room coordinator
Carved in Blue: What new groups are you promoting with TENCEL™ Lyocell?
Arlethe: Nostalgic Cozy: Fabrics with the authentic ‘90s look, without sacrificing the comfort and style that the consumer needs nowadays. Our Nostalgic Cozy fabrics are the perfect combination of modern with retro, to look and feel great.
The main sustainable characteristics of this product family are the recycled cotton percentage used plus the TENCEL™ Lyocell fiber, finishes where water consumption is reduced in both the fabric manufacturing process and the laundry process, since with low impact wash techniques, you achieve the contrasts needed.
Eco Stretch: Eco-friendly fabrics as a result of their TENCEL™ Lyocell fiber content instead of conventional cotton, plus greater stretch and recovery that T400 fiber provides. These products offer premium looks and deep indigo colors. The aim is keeping the consumer comfortable in their day-to-day life, making them feel freedom of motion, without worrying about the shape of their garment while they contribute to improve the environment.
Cotton Less Denim: Tavex has launched a collection of Cotton Less Denim! It is achieved with the use of TENCEL™ Lyocell fiber instead of the traditional cotton blend. Like cotton, TENCEL™ Lyocell is made from plant materials, however its manufacturing requires less energy and water than cotton. As a naturally derived fiber, TENCEL™ is also biodegradable. In addition, Lenzing sources its wood from certified and controlled suppliers to guarantee the sustainable managed plantations.
TENCEL™ Lyocell has incredible absorption characteristics, it is 50 percent more absorbent than cotton, so it requires a lot less dye than cotton. Also, it is more breathable and less susceptible to odorous bacteria growth.
Carved in Blue: How do you define the value of lower impact denim?
Arlethe: Brands have been pushed to have sustainable practices and its traceability. Final garments need to have an eco story behind them; that could be in the laundry process or raw material procuring. Keeping in mind that the main raw material in garments is the fabric, a lower impact denim is priority. Of course, sustainable denim will get the attention of the market, but the most important, the positive results on a large scale will generate a change in the environment and resources consumption.
VICUNHA
Brazil
German Alejandro Silva, chief marketing officer
Carved in Blue: What new groups are you promoting with TENCEL™ Lyocell?
Maria: We have TENCEL™ Lyocell and Modal fibers in several denim and denim color articles in our portfolio. The threads are mixed in different compositions with cotton, polyester and elastane in distinct constructions that can be found in several products of our macrolines.
From our V.Light macroline, which translates the lightness and comfort of these fibers, through the V.Moove macroline, with articles containing polyester and elastane, and V.Athletic, which has fabrics with modal fibers and a sweatshirt aspect, down to the use of REFIBRA™ technology in our family of sustainable fabrics.
Carved in Blue: How do you define the value of lower impact denim?
Maria: Denim is the most democratic fabric in the world, permeating all layers of society and styles for over a century. They have never stopped reinventing and evolving, and now they’re undergoing yet another transformation. In recent times, we have seen a significant change in the way we use and consume the planet’s resources. A number of necessary discussions were initiated on what we can change in our production chains to deliver more sustainable textile products, in alignment with the new demands of increasingly conscious consumers.
Millennials, and especially Generation Z, have new principles and are helping to drive this movement of change. Attentive to this behavior and need, we are 100 percent focused on braving this path for an eco-responsible evolution. We are reaching a new level thanks to constant investments in innovation that make it possible to ever increasingly expand the production of fabrics developed in a more sustainable way, respecting nature, reducing the consumption of new resources and guaranteeing the use of technological innovations in favor of the planet. Recycled fibers, the reuse of the residues from production, a reduction in chemicals, the use of certified raw materials, water savings and water treatment are some of the processes that have become part of this new industry model that is here to stay. We believe that, in this contemporary evolution of jeans wear, it is possible to be eco-friendly without sacrificing the traditional characteristics that make jeans such an admired and coveted material all over the world.