Candiani’s Micro Factory Wins ITMA Sustainability Award
Italian denim manufacturer Candiani Denim has been recognized with the ITMA Sustainable Innovation award for its Milanese micro factory, the first facility of its kind in a major city.
Opened in 2020, the vertical micro factory covers all steps of garment production—from cutting and sewing to treating and washing—in a scaled-down space that is open to the public. The Candiani Custom project creates custom-made denim to order. Not only does this model enable consumers to build the personalized jeans they want, but it also reduces waste since garments are only made on-demand.
With this hybrid retail and manufacturing concept, Candiani aims to support “conscious consumption.” Candiani’s made-to-order experience allows shoppers to choose not only their style of jeans, but also the fabric, trims, stitching color and other details such as embroidery and the outer label. Consumers can also select which washing or laser treatments they want used on the jeans. This offers personalization while also giving consumers a better understanding of Candiani’s supply chain.
The micro factory’s Milan location imbues jeans with a Made in Italy cachet, which is complemented with fabrics from Candiani’s mill about 20 miles away in Robecchetto con Induno. These textiles also offer innovations patented by Candiani, such as Coreva, a plant-based stretch material that enables stretchy jeans to fully biodegrade.
In addition to sustainable product touches like buttons that unscrew for recycling, the micro factory also uses responsible social practices. The facility is staffed by locals who have been trained to make denim, and the production process is literally transparent, with windows on the street that look into the factory.
Situated at Piazza Mentana 3 in Milan, the micro factory was designed by architecture firm Studio AtelierP di Piccinno. Inside the facility are technologies from FK Group, Tonello, Sip Italy, MIC, Okinawa, Cadica, Nearchimica, Cervo Tessile, Riri – CobraX and Rotondi. FK Group, which nominated Candiani for the award, created a cutting table for the micro factory that offers a 70 percent carbon footprint reduction.
Everything in the micro factory—from the equipment to the materials and trims—comes from a maximum distance of 238 kilometers. This shortened supply chain helps to limit transportation-related emissions.
The ITMA Sustainable Innovation award was established by CEMATEX in 2015 to recognize collaborative sustainability efforts within the supply chain. The Industry Excellence Award honors a company that is a customer of an ITMA exhibitor, and a Research & Innovation Excellence Award is given to Master’s Degree students studying at an exhibiting organization. In addition to its 2023 win for the micro factory, Candiani Denim was nominated by Lenzing in 2019 and won the award that year for its Re-Gen fabric.