Denim may be leading the pack, regarding innovations and technology improvements.
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Denim may be just one category within fashion, but in many ways, it’s leading the greater industry forward when it comes to sustainability.
And that may be because, as one of the most polluting categories, denim has been most closely watched for its adverse impacts.
To date, much of the innovation has been to curb traditional reliance on virgin cotton, harmful chemicals and dyes, and excessive water use — which experts cite as anywhere from 500 to 1,800 gallons — to make a single pair of jeans.
Along this road to cleaning up denim, the industry has stood out for its ability to innovate, cooperate and mobilize data while still leaning into its heritage.
Denim’s Evolution
If you ask Ebru Ozkucuk Guler, senior corporate social responsibility and sustainability executive at Turkish denim mill Isko, which supplies denim for Madewell and Los Angeles-based sustainable fashion label Reformation, innovation has ramped up in recent years.
“We have made great strides with creating denim products that are fully traceable and holistically responsible, definitely leading the rest of the industry in that sense — as denim has been scrutinized more in the past decade, it has incentivized us to innovate faster,” Guler said. “To truly define ‘sustainable denim,’ we must understand every step: from field to factory, shop floor, use phase and end of life. Each part has an important role to play in the end metrics and how we design. Sustainability, first and foremost, begins at the design phase. At Isko, this design phase begins with innovative yarn design and development process by a century experienced parent company, Sanko Tekstil.”
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Although an early adopter of organic cotton, Isko has been developing a number of innovations under what it calls its “Responsible Innovation” approach, including its “fully responsible fabric initiative” called R-Two, named for its use of recycled and reused materials.
“It is in the choice of the raw materials, the spinning, weaving, washing, finishing and the creating of the final garment. Every fabric we make, from traditional denim to our patented concepts, is the result of a careful assessment toward a key set of sustainability metrics. We call this mind-set our Responsible Innovation approach,” Guler said. “It goes beyond raw material selection, to impact our employees, and the processes and systems we have in place with the goal to deliver exceptional quality with sustainability in mind. It extends from the process and business model to the actual products.”
As with Isko’s R-Two development, responsible cotton alternatives like Tencel and Refibra, produced by 80-year-old textile manufacturer Lenzing, or Circulose, made by Swedish pulp fiber producer Re:newcell, are cropping up where, traditionally, cotton was king as companies today aim to minimize impact.
What matters now more than ever, in denim’s trajectory, according to Nicole Murray, denim industry veteran and founder of consulting group N-ovative, is finding cleaner ways to make jeans.
“During the last 20 years, key innovators and researchers in the industry dramatically changed sustainable denim,” she said. “By examining how fibers are created, it became clear that there was, and is, an opportunity to reduce the amount of water used in the process. Chemicals and finish innovation are also helping to reduce the environmental impact. Now the industry is embracing transparency; the where, how and who is manufacturing denim.”
With expertise in brand-building and sustainable manufacturing for denim, N-ovative’s clients include Dollhouse, Jones New York and AG Jeans. The group’s aim is to help brands and retailers create a “dynamic product,” while lessening social and environmental impact.
Dynamic denim, Murray said, must embody transparency, durability and circularity, and brands such as Etica Denim, Boyish, Reformation, Mud Denim and Re/Done, she added, have been answering the call to make denim that does more.
“If a company is making minimal effort to create sustainable denim, it will likely lose credibility and, ultimately, the consumer,” Murray said. And as market research firms cite sustained “confidence” for eco-friendly denim even where consumers are showing a return to conventional comfort amid remote work, it will prove challenging for those not prioritizing clean denim to get the consumer’s attention.
Hunger for Innovation and (Shared) Data
Ask a denimhead to list off denim industry innovations and they will cite technologies specific to a certain stage like Calik’s Washpro for extending life and Jeanologia for laser and eco-finishing, because of what Murray calls “proven” technologies, as well as proven data collection.
“It’s important for denim brands and retailers to see actual data to be able to measure how their product impacts the environment and to have clear transparency in the manufacturing of their product from fiber to finished goods,” added Murray, who mentioned Jeanologia’s program called Environmental Impact Number, designed to help laundries and garment finishers measure the data.
On its web site, Jeanologia says: “No measuring, no improvement,” which is a principle equally needed across the entire fashion industry.
Another takeaway to emulate from the denim industry may its cooperative mind-set when it comes to innovation.
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