History Meets Sustainability in TENCEL™ and Hemp Capsule
From its introduction, TENCEL™ Lyocell has always been a consistently great blending partner, and a new collection showcases just how well it pairs with fellow cellulosic fibers cotton and hemp.
Lenzing tapped a bevy of global collaborators for a project that honors the history of hemp and brings it into the present. Hemp is believed to date back 10,000 years, and it has recently gained attention in the textile world after it was removed from the U.S. Schedule 1 controlled substances list in 2018, allowing for legal production stateside. In comparison, TENCEL™ branded lyocell and modal fibers have only been around for a few decades, providing a modern touch to the fabrication.
Dubbed Bast Recast, the collection takes its name from the idea of recasting—or relaunching—bast fibers, which include linen, flax and hemp. “The interest in hemp is like a new beginning in the apparel area,” said Michael Kininmonth, project manager at Lenzing.
Both TENCEL and hemp can claim a low environmental impact, due to their low water use, high yields and low pesticides use during cultivation, and throughout the project, responsible products and processes have been used where ever possible.
Pakistan-based Naveena Denim Limited has created and supplied a collection of nine hemp based fabrics that include GOTS certified conventional and cottonized hemp sourced from China’s Kingdom. “This has been a very exciting project for us,” said Rashid Iqbal, executive director of NDL. “Our aim from the beginning was to develop fabrics which had both the authentic hemp look complimented by a modern hand feel.”
Endrime Studio designed 9 garments for the collection, taking inspiration from denim dating back to the 1870s to 1880s. Each style is avialble in raw and washed form. “Historically early workwear garments would have been made with hemp and linen,” said Mohsin Sajid, owner and creative director of Endrime, based in the U.K. “It was a complete pleasure to design, pattern cut and sew the entire collection.”
The sustainability of the garments extends to small details. Pieces were assembled with Crafil’s 100 percent TENCEL™ Lyocell thread, allowing them to be fully biodegradable. The scraps from cutting the collection were processed and used to make cotton paper tags and joker labels by Warpface. Keeping to the historical denim feel, the tags were printed using a letter press, and tags were laid out on the sheets of paper to have minimal waste. “If you ask me to write, what would be the dream project to work on, this would be it,” said Duncan Eldridge from Warpface.
Instead of leather patches, the collection’s branding is sewn onto duck canvas made of hemp. The patches and tags are all printed with Italy-based Officina+39’s Recycrom dye, which is developed from textile waste. This marks the first time that Recycrom is being used on paper.
The garments from the collection are being shown in both raw and washed versions. To finish the jeans, Lenzing tapped longtime collaborator Jeanologia in Spain. “It was so interesting to work on these new fabric blends,” said Victoria Soto, technology consultant at Jeanologia. “We focused on provide a great aesthetics for this amazing collection but as always achieving a low EIM rating/score as our primary target.”
Bast Recast is an example of the role collaboration plays in driving sustainable innovation. “In order to pay homage to the history of hemp, we brought together a group of companies who we knew could deliver both the quality, innovation and environmental integrity that the Sustainable Denim Wardrobe projects demand,” said Michael.
Join us at Kingpins24 from April 20-22 to hear more about Bast Recast.