TENCEL™ Denim Mill Update: Spain, Turkey & Egypt
To see the versatility and value proposition of TENCEL™ fibers, look no further than the denim world. Mills are leveraging the wood-based fibers to create jean materials that are soft yet strong, with a lower impact.
TENCEL™ Lyocell is made from trees using a closed-loop process that captures and reuses 99 percent of solvents and water used. In addition to the eco-friendly production behind TENCEL™ Lyocell, our REFIBRA™ technology enables circularity by replacing a portion of inputs with chemically recycled cotton waste.
Carved in Blue caught up with mills in Spain, Turkey and Egypt to hear how they are using TENCEL™ and TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™ in their collections. More from Bossa, Calik Denim, DNM Textile, Kipas Denim, Orta, Textil Santanderina, and Tejidos Royo below.
BOSSA
Turkey
Özge Özsoy, marketing chief
Carved in Blue: What is your group name/theme for TENCEL™ Denim?
Özge: Meet the softest denim in the blue world: Eversoft. This is a brand new technology that offers extreme comfort and ultra softness that has never before been experienced in denim. A combination of fiber, construction and advanced finishing techniques, these articles have an excellent softness.
We also used TENCEL™ in our Hempy concept, which is most durable and most sustainable. Not only is hemp the most durable of all natural fibers, but it is also most sustainable to grow as it requires no irrigation, fertilization, pesticides, herbicides or chemicals. And hemp requires at least 60 percent less water compared to cotton. In addition, hemp fiber has inherent antibacterial properties and is regenerative.
In some articles, we used hemp and TENCEL™ together with the combination of sustainable benefits. And we also used TENCEL™ in our sustainable articles.
Carved in Blue: What does TENCEL™ Lyocell bring to your collections?
Özge: TENCEL™ brings sustainable properties and softness together.
Carved in Blue: Do you have any new developments with REFIBRA™ Technology?
Özge: We have many REFIBRA™ blended articles. We used REFIBRA™ mostly in our Future Denim items. Combining sustainable fibers and dyeing techniques, we create the denim of the future. These articles have a sustainable combination of REFIBRA™ and many other sustainable fibers.
CALIK DENIM
Turkey
Damla Karayağız, textile engineer
Carved in Blue: What is your group name/theme for TENCEL™ Denim?
Damla: TENCEL™ is one of our most valuable fibers. Therefore, we are keen on incorporating it in many of our articles. In our newly released AW22-23 collection, Sequency, we have many concepts which have fabrics with TENCEL™ in the composition.
For instance, in our Denovated concept, we have seven articles with TENCEL™. This concept is based on the idea of renewing and renovating the ‘70s-‘80s denim looks, making them fresh again for the new era. In Denovated, we offer authentic articles with distinctive twills and overcrack or salt and pepper appearances without compromising comfort and softhand feel, of course.
We have an article with TENCEL™ incorporated in the composition in Blue-H, which is a concept based entirely on articles with hemp.
Our D-Leisure concept revolves around comfort. In this concept, we offer very comfortable and loose articles ideal for daily and home office life with an authentic look, with TENCEL™ fiber in construction.
Carved in Blue: What does TENCEL™ Lyocell bring to your collections?
Damla: Thanks to TENCEL™ Lyocell, we can provide consumers with fabrics that have extra softness and unique hand feel. TENCEL™ gives the article smoothness and also has very important properties like moisture absorption. Also, fabrics with TENCEL™ have an authentic very light marble or salt and pepper effect, which we are extremely fond of.
Carved in Blue: Do you have any new developments with REFIBRA™ Technology?
Damla: In our newly released AW 22-23 collection Sequency. In Denovated, we have a brand new article which we named Antonie with REFIBRA™. Also, another very important feature of Antonie is that along with a specific amount of REFIBRA™, a noteworthy amount of zero carbon TENCEL™ was also used in the composition, making this article more sustainable and eco-conscious. Offered in two color options, Antonie is a very authentic overcrack denim article, which resembles the ’80s denim look, that is comfort stretch, has an elasticity of around 20 percent and weighs 14 ounces when it is washed.
DNM TEXTILE
Egypt
Zuhal Karacayir, marketing executive
Carved in Blue: What is your group name/theme for TENCEL™ Denim?
Zuhal: We do not name any group or concept because we use it in more or less all concepts.
Carved in Blue: What does TENCEL™ Lyocell bring to your collections?
Zuhal: TENCEL™ Lyocell provides sustainability to our collections. Besides being soft and shiny, it also provides strength improvement, especially when used in weft.
Carved in Blue: Do you have any new developments with REFIBRA™ Technology?
Zuhal: We tried REFIBRA™ in the past, but due to customers’ negative reaction against REFIBRA™, we decided to work with TENCEL™ Lyocell in the main collection. If any customer asked for REFIBRA™, we are able to improve qualities.
KIPAS DENIM
Turkey
Hürriyet Öztürk, product development director
Carved in Blue: What is your group name/theme for TENCEL™ Denim?
Hürriyet: Kipas Denim has many different concepts which are suitable for different customer requirements. We use TENCEL™ and modal at every opportunity in our collections. Always we are willing to add these useful fibers in our concepts. For example, we add this fiber for a combined vintage look and softness in one fabric. And they are under our Heritage concept. Twenty-Four is another concept which offers you home comfy with TENCEL™ softness and smoothness. Super high elastic fabrics around 100 percent elasticity is another hot topic of denim trends. And we add TENCEL™ and modal fiber in these constructions. Therefore, the fabrics are both softer, smoother and more comfortable. we call this concept Fit-Id.
Carved in Blue: What does TENCEL™ Lyocell bring to your collections?
Hürriyet: First of all, end users are now very familiar with TENCEL™ fiber. They prefer it because of its wear performance and usage advantages. As a fabric manufacturer, our first priority is to develop products that meet the demands of the end user. TENCEL™ fibers meet these demands in terms of more softness, premium appearance and breathability. For this reason, Lenzing products make our collections more suitable for the wishes of the end user.
Carved in Blue: Do you have any new developments with REFIBRA™ Technology?
Hürriyet: We have many articles which are made with REFIBRA™ in our latest collections. One of them is Poznan Pure Blue. This article is the perfect combination of sustainability and authenticity with its 35 percent Refibra™ and timeless denim construction.
ORTA
Turkey
Zennure Danışman, marketing and wash manager
Carved in Blue: What is your group name/theme for TENCEL™ Denim?
Zennure: Orta is reinventing denim origins with a zero virgin cotton authentic denim fabric: a denim technological revolution using TENCEL™, TENCEL™ Modal, pre-consumer recycled cotton and post-consumer recycled polyester mix. Zero-Max uses recycled yarns with super soft elasticity for maximum shaping.
Zero-Max is coupled with conscious luxury and sophisticated structure. Zero-Max is woven with minimum impact to shape the future of denim.
Carved in Blue: What does TENCEL™ Lyocell bring to your collections?
Zennure: We are expanding our breakthrough Zero-Max denim that uses zero virgin cotton while delivering maximum shape retention. Orta’s Zero-Max family is soft for you and softhearted for the planet. It is sustainable denim taken to the next level: TENCEL™ Lyocell and TENCEL™ Modal woven with recycled polyester. Crafted with unique weft and elasticity fusion that has a soft luster on the face, and luxuriously soft hand. Zero virgin cotton, pure soft super shaping technology that holds form in every situation.
Carved in Blue: Do you have any new developments with REFIBRA™ Technology?
Zennure: Deeply rooted in the eco-progressive, biodiverse commitment of denim, we developed a unique collection made from eco-wise hemp that we call Gen H. With Gen H, we would like to celebrate sustainability and minimalism. Gen H delivers a golden ratio blend of net-positive comfort of hemp.
With Gen H, we’ve perfected the authentic look and feel, weaving 20 percent quality hemp together with new expectations of organic cotton and TENCEL™ with REFIBRA™ technology.
A ground-breaking combination of TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™, hemp and cotton, this is a denim solution to chill eco-anxiety without the psychedelics.
Orta’s Natural Collection with 100 percent plant-based fibers is a durable, reliable, soft alternative—the combinations of eco-fibers of a new generation.
TEJIDOS ROYO
Spain
Rocio Perez de los Cobos, communications manager
Carved in Blue: What is your group name/theme for TENCEL™ Denim?
Rocio: We all know that the main characteristic of the fabric made from TENCEL™ fiber, apart from being sustainable and eco-responsible, is the extreme softness and silky feel it provides. For this reason, the naming of our TENCEL™ collection is called Suave—which means soft in Spanish—because it is the word that best describes it.
Carved in Blue: What does TENCEL™ Lyocell bring to your collections?
Rocio: We continue to innovate and produce new fabrics from TENCEL™ Lyocell. This time, we have modified the vintage looking denim with cotton and organic cotton alternatives and TENCEL™ Lyocell. These fabrics promote everyday comfort with an extra soft feel.
We maintain an authentic denim look with defined twills and open-end yarns, resulting in a genuine vintage look, and achieve improved comfort and maximum stretch.
Carved in Blue: Do you have any new developments with REFIBRA™ Technology?
Rocio: For this new collection, we are developing a new fabric. Our goal for this is recycling at its best. Part of its composition contains REFIBRA™, but up to here we can count. Soon there will be a new sustainable denim revolution.
TEXTIL SANTANDERINA
Spain
Laetitia Grimoult, export manager
Carved in Blue: What is your group name/theme for TENCEL™ Denim?
Laetitia: TENCEL™ Lyocell is present in all the areas of our FW collection: bottom weight and tops, indigo yarn dyed, piece dyed and PFGD. It played a big role in our R/Turn range (R/Turn stands for Reduce/ Reuse/ Recycle), where it was blended and mixed with other fiber options like organic cotton, European linen and hemp, and Invista Lycra for a full sustainable approach of the fabric. We are now taking TENCEL™ one step further with our Douten line. It brings on the table an innovative spinning system developed at Santanderina, which enhances the resistance to tearing and abrasion, and gives fabric a better performance during washing and a higher color intensity.
Carved in Blue: What does TENCEL™ Lyocell bring to your collections?
Laetitia: We fell in love with TENCEL™ Lyocell decades ago for its softness and drape, and it has kept its magic up to today because it is one of the most sustainable and traceable fibers available right now. These are values we deeply believe in and share at Santanderina, and that we put in every collection.
Carved in Blue: Do you have any new developments with REFIBRA™ Technology?
Santanderina: We do! REFIBRA™ Technology is present in two substantial projects: our Flow finish, a mill wash process that extends the durability of garments and reduces the amount of microfibers going into water waste (and the oceans). The second development will be found in our S360º offer, which consists in recycling garments to produce new fabrics. REFIBRA™ led the path in this area and makes a perfect fit in this exciting new way of producing fabrics.