Mill Memo: Turkey Producers on Cotton-Free and Circular Denim
Increasingly, mills are thinking beyond virgin cotton for denim. This might mean cottonless denim with materials like TENCEL™ lyocell or hemp, or a mix of recycled textiles and wood-based fibers. Carved in Blue checked in with the TENCEL™ denim mill customers to chat about their cotton-free collections and circular fabrics.
Read on to hear from Bossa, Orta and Tusa.
BOSSA
Özge Özsoy, marketing chief
Carved in Blue: Do you have a ‘No Cotton Denim’ fabric?
Özge: We have no cotton products, most of them are under our Future Denim (100 percent sustainable denim) concept.
We are using TENCEL™ lyocell, modal, viscose, linen, hemp, etc., and most of these products are dyed with zero water and zero waste, Bossa Saveblue Technology.
Carved in Blue: For denim fabrics, what are you offering in TENCEL™ Lyocell for volume priced orders? What is your common TENCEL™ Denim base fabric?
Özge: TENCEL™ is a revolutionary cellulosic fiber which promotes sustainability and natural comfort. Mostly we use TENCEL™ in our sustainable rigid and comfort stretch products.
As well as being sustainable it adds a very nice effect and softness to heritage products. We also use TENCEL™ in our soft touch power and high power stretch products.
Carved in Blue: Circularity is the next frontier. What have you developed with mechanical recycled cotton and TENCEL™ Lyocell?
Özge: With our Towards Zero Waste principle, we are using recycled cotton in the blend of most of our products.
In order to have a better performance fabric, we need to use a better fiber in mechanical recycled cotton blend, and TENCEL™ is the best available fiber.
With the help of TENCEL™, we can use a higher percentage of mechanical recycled fibers in our fabrics. Most of our products are in our Future Denim concept. Combining sustainable fibers and dyeing techniques, we create the denim of the future.
This is true for the hemp fiber as well. In order to spin better yarn, we need to enjoy other fibers such as TENCEL™. All our Hempy denims have TENCEL™ and hemp blend.
Carved in Blue:What about chemical recycling with REFIBRA™ technology?
Özge: Same as TENCEL™ lyocell, we mostly use REFIBRA™ in our Future Denim items.
ORTA
Zennure Danişman, marketing and washing manager
Carved in Blue: Do you have a ‘No Cotton Denim’ fabric?
Zennure: As Orta, we have a zero-virgin cotton fabric family: Zero-Max. Crafted with science, nature and technology to create the best authentic denim without zero virgin cotton with the sophisticated soft touch.
The Zero-Max family is soft for you and softhearted for the planet with TENCEL™ Lyocell, TENCEL™ Modal and recycled polyester woven. It is crafted with unique twill and elasticity fusion that has a soft luster on the face and luxuriously soft hand.
Carved in Blue: For denim fabrics, what are you offering in TENCEL™ Lyocell for volume priced orders? What is your common TENCEL™ Denim base fabric?
Zennure: Orta’s TENCEL™ journey has started with the beginning of 2000s, and we are developing beautiful fabrics with TENCEL™ fibers since that time. Today, approximately 20-25 percent of our production includes TENCEL™ fibers.
As Orta, we have been implementing new fabric innovations to continually improve our sustainability practices, and to ensure denim’s future. With that aim, while we are always searching for raw materials that have less stress on the farming and cultivating of natural fibers, TENCEL™ enables us to create more eco-engineered and climate-friendly fabrics that deliver comfort, softness and performance.
Thanks to TENCEL™ fibers’ sophisticated softness, luxury feeling with conscious esthetic, our Zero-Max family with TENCEL™ is the sustainable denim taken to the next level.
TENCEL™ fibers are also part of Orta’s Golden Ratio designing mentality that covers soul-tech denim that is perfectly blended for strength, durability and longevity.
Carved in Blue: Circularity is the next frontier. What have you developed with mechanical recycled cotton and TENCEL™ lyocell?
Zennure: A joyride of breezy style meets utilitarian minimalist, we put a new mindful sensation of denim in today’s new casual with performance-light, relaxed ease of TENCEL ™, organic and recycled cotton that meets Ellen MacArthur Jeans Redesign’s strength criteria of good tensile strength after 30 home launderings.
Orta’s Golden Ratio fabrics are blended for longevity by the masters at Orta Lab. Striving for simplicity, this carefully curated denim collection consolidates our well-being and the well-being of the planet. Our innovative team of experts at Orta Lab created eco-feat in denim—new Golden Ratio standard of organic and recycled cotton and TENCEL™ fibers.
Additionally, under the Zero-Max concept, we are also happy to celebrate the denim fabric with 70 percent TENCEL™ plus 30 percent pre-consumer cotton tenderly crafted to be supremely soft for confident styles. It’s crafted with science, nature and technology to create the best authentic vintage marbled rigid denim.
Carved in Blue: What about chemical recycling with REFIBRA™ technology?
Zennure: For addressing circularity, we are following two approaches: Using recycled materials in production and creating recyclable fabrics. Material-wise, we have blends containing recycled cotton, recycled polyester and TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™.
Memoria takes the best of Orta’s newest vintage characters to a renewed modernity.
From sophisticated grey- and green-cast vintage in recycled cotton, to marble vintage organic cotton with TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™, to pure indigo marble vintage colors, Memoria is the new throwback for generations to come.
Zenful provides lightweight relax and performance relax for relaxed fits and styles.
A shiny bright perspective in an organic, floaty cotton with TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™ for the freshest zen styles for shirts, tops or beach-bound denim looks.
TUSA
Aykut Çam, deputy general manager
Carved in Blue: Do you have a ‘No Cotton Denim’ fabric?
Aykut: No cotton denim fabric products are not available on the denim side, but they are generally available on the non-denim side. Our concept name for denim, non-denim is “soft tissue.”
Carved in Blue: For denim fabrics, what are you offering in TENCEL™ Lyocell for volume priced orders? What is your common TENCEL™ Denim base fabric?
Aykut: Volume works generally prefer cotton-rich products. TENCEL™, modal and viscose are considered a little more premium. We can say that our most commercial product with TENCEL™ content is Prague on the denim side and 4774 on the non-denim side.
Carved in Blue: Circularity is the next frontier. What have you developed with mechanical recycled cotton and TENCEL™ Lyocell? What about chemical recycling with REFIBRA™ technology?
Aykut: A recycled cotton(mechanical) and lyocell fiber blended product idea will be evaluated in new product development studies.
We also plan to evaluate REFIBRA™ technology as soon as possible. We think that we can produce more performance with REFIBRA™ than the use of mechanical recycled cotton.
We have non-denim products with recycled cotton, lyocell fiber and REFIBRA™. We used pre-consumer recycled cotton in our Prague type, which is a mixture of TENCEL™ Lycoell and cotton. On the denim side, we plan to expand products with recycled cotton, lyocell fiber and REFIBRA™.