Tuong Long in Vietnam is Giving Denim a Dose of Sustainability
For Tuong Long, making denim in Vietnam means making it with concern for the environment.
Second to sustainability, the mill pays attention to the quality of the product it puts out, priding itself on delivering denim that’s priced better and produced faster, but doesn’t skimp on quality.
As more companies look to Vietnam as a key alternative to China for their product, the country is benefitting from greater attention on what it’s doing for the denim sector.
Carved in Blue caught up with Tuong Long’s Carol Chan to get a better idea of what Vietnam’s denim offering and what the mill is bringing to the business.
Carved in Blue: Can you tell us a little about what sets Tuong Long apart?
Carol: Tuong Long is one of the exclusive vertical companies in Vietnam from end to end: yarns, indigo denim, piece dyed and printing. We provide significant benefits by providing better and consistent quality, more competitive pricing, simpler transaction without dealing with multiple vendors, and faster turnaround time.
With the continuous increasing demands on Vietnam in garment production, Vietnam fabric is geographically forming vertical support for the Vietnam local and garment factories nearby, like Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka.
Carved in Blue: From a bigger perspective, what sets denim made in Vietnam apart?
Carol: Vietnam is one of the most demanding in garment manufacturing globally where most brands manufacture either denim, casuals, active wear, work wear—from high-end to low-end and for each segment of customers. The efficiency and quality execution is above par and meets the brand expectations.
Carved in Blue: What are the trends you see shaping up in denim?
Carol: Sustainable is really the keyword of the upcoming trend in indigo denim, color denim and causal wovens. Eco-friendly and environment friendly raw material like TENCEL™ Lyocell, yarns and dyestuff, enhancing a production of water and energy saving.
Carved in Blue: What new projects is Tuong Long working on for denim?
Carol: Tuong Long has great plans for both denim and wovens with a new denim plant that is under execution, a laundry plant, suppling vertically with our partner garment factories. With our piece dyed mill production in khaki and color denim, we are also adding a printing facility to expand the twill collection.
Carved in Blue: How important is sustainability to the company and what are you doing to achieve it?
Carol: Sustainability of product is paramount. At Tuong Long we are Oeko-Tex certified, ISO environmental management system, we use U.S. Cotton and are a BCI yarn supplier partner.
We are also Blue Sign, ZDHC & GOTS from liquid Indigo dyes stuff supply, achieving waterless treatment and chemical reduction for indigo denim. With the support on Lenzing, we are ready on development TENCEL™ Lyocell, TENCEL™ Modal with Eco Color Technology, and a series of blends.
Carved in Blue: How have you incorporated TENCEL™ fibers into your products? What made you decide to use it?
Carol: For the softness of TENCEL™ Lyocell fiber, we are suppling widely to contemporary ladieswear fashion brands, highlighting the feminine touch and shape forming in stretch skinny jeans and chambray for shirting and dresses.
Carved in Blue: A bit about you now—what is your favorite pair of jeans?
Carol: Rich, authentic denim which I can wear with friends, can go office and attend a party with jacket. Denham jeans is one of my favorite.
Carved in Blue: What do you think denim is missing today?
Carol: Again—sustainability and an eco-friendly production base for keeping the mystery of indigo denim without harming the environment. More innovations on raw material supply and automations in garment production—a better balance may keep customer interests.
Carved in Blue: Where do you look for denim inspiration?
Carol: Online information for fashion and textile, catwalk shows, a blog like Carved in Blue, magazines and trend forum and seminars of fabric shows.
Carved in Blue: What does Carved in Blue mean to you?
Carol: We appreciate the great support and partnership of Lenzing fibers in providing good qualities and innovations of yarns supplies. With the Carved in Blue blog, we as a denim mill in Vietnam, are seeing a great marketing tools and online platform, efficiently connecting our mill facilities and product to all fashion brands globally. It’s great way to enhance communication.