Lenzing’s Tencel fibre with Refibra technology will form the basis of the Austrian firm’s Midnight Blues denim capsule collection at this month’s Kingpins show in Amsterdam. The process to realise the collection – which debuted at New York Couture Fashion Week – has seen the fibre producer collaborate with designer Pawan Kumar, denim manufacturer Saitex and more than a dozen mills from around the world.
The company’s Refibra technology regenerates cotton scraps from industrial waste so the subsequent upcycled cotton is suitable to be combined with wood to form Tencel Lyocell fibres. The Tencel denim fabrics Pawan selected for the Midnight Blues capsule collection were then processed using Jeanologia technology and manufactured at Saitex.
Saitex was chosen, Lenzing says, because it has been awarded bluesign and LEED certifications for its factory technologies which are said to eliminate water waste through recycling up to 98 per cent of the water it uses – with the other two per cent said to be lost through evaporation. In addition to the core denim styles featured in the collection, knitted and woven garments were produced by other mills including Artistic Denim Mills, Artistic Milliners, Barutcu, Blue Diamond, Candiani, Cone Denim, Hallotex, Orta, Prosperity, Royo, Textil Santaderina, and Tintex.
Regarding the opportunity to work with Lenzing’s materials for the collection, Pawan, who previously worked as a designer at Jeanologia stated, “With these innovative fabrics, it was easy to attain the specific wash effects and visual textures I wanted for my designs, which embrace sustainability from fibre to finished garment. I am eager to present the Midnight Blues collection at Kingpins Amsterdam and show the market that beautiful, sustainable denim is the future.”
Tricia Carey, Lenzing’s Director of global business development for denim said, “Tencel Lyocell with Refibra technology brings circularity to textiles by using post-industrial cotton waste to make new Lyocell fibres. Initially launched in February 2017, we now have a wider range of mills and brands integrating Refibra technology into their collections.”
