TENCEL® Fibers Captures 25 Years in Denim on Film
From modest beginnings 25 years ago, the importance of TENCEL® fibers in the apparel market has steadily grown such that today denim makers and designers turned to it to create garments for the weekend, the workplace, and the runway. Finally the importance of sustainability, the unique selling proposition of TENCEL® fibers, has begun to play a major part in the textile industry and as such, means that TENCEL® fibers are well positioned to play a key role in the future of the denim business.
In 1992, America elected someone named Clinton for President, the Space Shuttle Endeavour made its’ maiden voyage and the summer Olympics are held in Barcelona, Spain. That was also the year that TENCEL® branded lyocell fibers were introduced to the market.
It was a breakthrough, especially for the denim world. The unique aesthetics of fabrics with TENCEL® fibers meant that designers were able to create apparel with a previously unheard of level of softness and drape. “TENCEL® has been able to open the minds of designers,” says Adriano Goldschmied, CEO of Genious Group and the ‘Godfather of Denim’. “We could design things which were previously impossible to design.”
It isn’t often that a technological advancement comes with an ecological benefit, but that was yet another key feature of TENCEL® fibers. A major driving force to its development was the demand for a process that was environmentally responsible and utilised renewable resources as its raw materials.The fiber is made from wood pulp derived from responsibly managed forests, through in a closed loop manufacturing process, with a solvent recovery of more than 99%. This is a fiber that is wholly sustainable, compostable and biodegradable.
TENCEL® fibers have multiple textile applications, and its introduction has been significant in many product categories, especially that of denim. Until the arrival of TENCEL® fibers, indigo was reserved solely for cotton. TENCEL® fibers blended with cotton, however, creates a fabric that inspires words like “silky, “luxurious,” “drapey” and “fresh.” More and more designers, mills and laundries discovered TENCEL® fibers and clamored to work with it.
But a revolution, by definition, means change—and change is hard, and often complicated. It became clear that manufacturing modifications were needed in order to take optimal advantage of a new textile that was superior in nearly every way—for drape, hand, design and the earth—but not yet well known. Designers had to rethink their craft, to know what the blends could do. Machines had to be adjusted and workers retrained, to correctly stitch and wash the fabrics. And among the refinements, one overriding problem—fibrillation—threatened to drag the dream into a nightmare.
It took a dedicated team of textile technologists to engineer a solution. Perhaps it was inevitable for the denim industry, which has dressed everyone in the world, from pioneers to princes, for nearly a century and a half.
Now, it’s a new century, and, 25 years after its debut, TENCEL® fibers are more integral to denim design and production than ever. As the precariousness of the environment has become clearer, sustainable denim production has become crucial, making TENCEL® as fundamental to denim as cotton once was. “The future of denim and TENCEL® —both are going together,” says Juan Pares, CEO of Textil Santanderina from Spain.