Artistic Fabric & Garment Industries Envisions a Future for Recycled Cotton
Artistic Fabric & Garment Industries’ believes the secret to success is sustainability.
A family owned business that started as a small retail shop in 1949 is now among the leading suppliers of premium denim fabric and garments worldwide, with 16 factories, two of them are fabric mills, and produce more than 60 million meters of fabric and 25 million garments a year.
As an industry leader, the company believes a successful future begins with sustainability—and its deliberate about implementing eco-friendly production practices, like zero-water-waste dyes, reduction in water consumption and use of in-house waste-recycling plants that produce new textiles from old jeans.
Carved in Blue caught up with Henry Wong, Artistic Fabric & Garment Industries’ director of product development and marketing for North America, to talk salt-free indigo dyeing, using closed-loop production methods and adding TENCEL™ x Refibra™ Lyocell to discarded jeans.
Carved in Blue: Can you tell us a little about what Artistic is working on these days?
Henry: Artistic Fabric & Garment Industries (AFGI) is actively developing sustainability solutions that offer real impact, instead of just marketing highlights. Having the ability to control our own post-consumer waste-shredding plant—used to turn old jeans into new fibers completely in house—allows us to maintain our required level of quality assurance and traceability.
For this coming season, one of our most exciting projects is marrying our post-consumer recycled cotton, made from discarded jeans, with TENCEL™ x Refibra™ Lyocell. We are especially excited to explore what benefits we can bring to the industry when we combine these fiber concepts with our salt-free indigo dyeing and our Zero Waste Water dyes.
Carved in Blue: Why is sustainability so important to the company?
Henry: We are a family business, and it’s clear our leaders are true believers of needing to leave the next generation a world that is at least a bit better than when they inherited it. I can see this belief is deeply personal, which is why I think it will be a success driver.
Carved in Blue: What sets Artistic apart from the rest today?
Henry: The level of investment our company has made toward reducing our ecological impact, without any obvious immediate returns, highlights a top-level commitment that truly inspires me.
Carved in Blue: What sustainability efforts are you undertaking?
Henry: As part of our “Artistic Cares” initiative, we are almost finished with planting 27,000 mangrove trees with the WWF-Pakistan (World Wide Fund for Nature), in Karachi, Pakistan, where our fully vertical denim operation is located. This represents one planting for each of our employees.
From a product development perspective, we have “better way” solutions for everything from fiber to dyeing to finishing to washing. The challenge we are most eager to overcome is to make these solutions commercially attractive to our clients.
Carved in Blue: How has TENCEL™ x Refibra™ Lyocell branded fibers helped with your sustainability efforts?
Henry: TENCEL™ fibers by now is a brand name that consumers in stores have started to recognize. This adds immediately recognizable value to the products we develop. Lenzing’s closed-loop production method for TENCEL™ aligns closely with our company’s values. Using Refibra™ Technology certainly adds another dimension to our sustainable fibers offerings.
Carved in Blue: When did you first know you were a blueblood?
Henry: When my friends and family became concerned about how blue my hands looked and I was completely fine with that.
Carved in Blue: What’s missing from the denim industry today?
Henry: A clear vision on how denim can be part of a sustainable future.
Carved in Blue: Do you remember your first pair of jeans? What was it?
Henry: No, denim has always been on heavy rotation. Even when I was a baby.
Carved in Blue: What city do you love most for denim inspiration?
Henry: Tokyo. As the confluence of all things Japanese and international, new and traditional, Tokyo to me represents the most interesting dynamic in the world of denim: how to respect the old while still progressing. Tokyo attracts people who do what they have become obsessed with and you can find this in everything from food to fashion, design and art.
Carved in Blue: What does Carved in Blue mean to you?
Henry: Carved in Blue to me means being made a work of art by our favorite color.