Blue Cast: Bluezone’s Panos Sofianos Shares His Denim Philosophy

Blue Cast: Bluezone’s Panos Sofianos Shares His Denim Philosophy

The denim industry has taken time to warm to the idea of sustainability, but some industry figures caught on to fashion’s ecological future ahead of their peers.

In the most recent episode of our Blue Cast podcast, Michael Kininmonth from the TENCEL™ Denim team caught up with his longtime friend Panos Sofianos, sustainable denim strategist and denim innovation curator at Bluezone Show. Michael describes Panos as a “deep thinker” in denim. Throughout his four decades in the field, Panos has collaborated with a number of the industry’s powerhouse brands such as Diesel and Levi Strauss & Co., as well as working at leading mills such as Spain’s Tejidos Royo and Hellenic Fabrics in Greece.

Panos was an early advocate for environmentally conscious concepts. “I had the sensibility to foresee that this could be the main issue for the future. I think it was an intuition that I had,” he explained.

Taking inspiration from how his mother reused material to make new clothing when money was tight, Panos suggested his mill recycle cotton waste and extra stock when cotton prices soared. Aside from his personal experience seeing fabric being reused at home, an unexpected business case for upcycling was how a dairy producer was using leftover ingredients to make products like yogurt.

In addition to recognizing both the eco and economic benefits of recycling, Panos realized the potential in TENCEL™ Lyocell. “Royo was the first company that was using a lot of TENCEL™, which was a very interesting product as a fiber, because of its suppleness and drapey hand,” he said. After using it for women’s jeans, Royo expanded its TENCEL™ Lyocell offerings to include blends with regenerated cotton.

Over the many years of his partnership with Lenzing, Panos has helped to innovate denim. One of the styles that stands out to him is the first Engineered Levi’s denim made using TENCEL™ Lyocell.

Innovation has continued to play a major role in his most recent career and it has been one of his proudest achievements to develop the Keyhouse concept at Munich Fabric Start, which he plans to expand further in the future.

Denim still has room to grow its sustainable practices. With the pandemic offering a chance for a reset, Panos sees it as an opportunity for change. Among the updates he would like to see is an industry-wide ethics guide and government involvement in establishing environmental and social rules.

“We need a reboot, we need to rewrite the history, we need to start from scratch on some things, and we have to be fair with ourselves and with our children, and our children’s children,” he said.

Listen to the full episode to hear Panos’ thoughts on why Greece’s and Turkey’s apparel manufacturing diverged, how the denim industry needs to evolve and the continued importance of heritage in denim.