A Style-by-Style Guide to Bast Recast
During this April’s Kingpins24, Lenzing unveiled Bast Recast, their latest Sustainable Denim Wardrobe collection, featuring fabric made from blends of TENCEL™ Lyocell, TENCEL™ Modal, Hemp and cotton.
‘BAST’ because hemp is a member of the bast fiber family and ‘RECAST’ because hemp is being reinvented for the apparel industry.
While the collection just debuted in 2021, Bast Recast was set in motion towards the end of 2019 after a meeting in London between Naveena Denim Limited’s (NDL) Rashid Iqbal and Michael Kininmonth from Lenzing.
NDL was showcasing its first hemp based collection, and the idea of adding further to the range with blends of hemp and TENCEL™ was set in motion.
“I knew from work I’d done many years ago that there was a real synergy between blends of TENCEL™ Lyocell and bast fibers,” Michael explained.
“The whole idea behind this project was to merge the latest technologies with vintage denims. Enhancing the aesthetics of hemp with those of TENCEL™ fibers appeared to be a great marriage worth exploring,” said Rashid.
Endrime Design Studio brought their vintage expertise to the collection, with the inspiration coming from the 1840s; paying homage to that history, the collection includes constructions such as duck canvas and workwear silhouettes reminiscent of that early era.
For washing and finishing the project was handed on to Jeanologia. “What an amazing project that we managed to do together, and how very honored I am to have done it, to have been involved from the very beginning,” said Mohsin. “Our friends at Jeanologia did such an awesome job finishing it for us to show off the fabric to the best of its ability whilst at the same time achieving low eco impact scores.”
Watch the video below for a closer look at the how the fabrics and designs created for the Bast Recast collection came together.