Inside Denim Issue 14

ISSUE 14: 2024

BEHIND THE SEAMS OF THE GLOBAL DENIM INDUSTRY

Momotaro Jeans’ rebirth Preparing for digital IDs / Reuse v recycle / Simon Guiliani Nature underpins stretch / Trendsetting shifts camps

INSIDE DENIM CONTENTS

Contents ISSUE 14: 2024

BEHIND THE SEAMS OF THE GLOBAL DENIM INDUSTRY

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Co-editor Sophie Bramel suggests that the industry take advantage of a slower market to embrace slow fashion tenets: ethical manufacturing along with inspired and inspiring craftsmanship and creativity.

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04 Guest comment: Simon Guiliani Candiani’s head of marketing and sustainability believes the need to move away from a price and volume-driven model is pressing.

Momotaro Jeans’ rebirth Preparing for digital IDs / Reuse v recycle / Simon Guiliani

06 Industry News A round-up of recent launches and developments from across the supply chain.

Nature underpins stretch / Trendsetting shifts camps

Cover The weaving of Momotaro Jeans’ denim fabric on vintage looms imparts unique characteristics. These machines need delicate handling as spare parts are not available; each is maintained by skilled craftsmen.

PHOTO: MOMOTARO JEANS

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE STYLE 08

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Ahead in the score The denim industry may have a head start on future digital product IDs, but many gaps remain to achieve full traceability.

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Making the case for reuse Deciphering the complex web of the second-hand clothing trade helps better understand that waste is a resource for many.

16 Editors Sophie Bramel Clare Grainger Consultant editor Stephen Tierney Publisher Simon Yarwood Design Tim Button Subscriptions manager John Collins Administration Lisa Fabian-Smith Editorial enquiries clare@worldtrades.co.uk sophie@worldtrades.co.uk

Natural progression Rubber trees, sugarcane and dent corn provide fresh bases for stretch denim.

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BC

Officina39

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Sharabati

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Soko

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Head Office World Trades Publishing, The Old Stone House, Teeton, Northampton NN6 8LH, UK. Tel: +44 151 928 9288

Dialogue: Masataka Suzuki The COO of Japan Blue Group explains the impetus behind Momotaro’s relaunch.

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Artistic Milliners

INSIDE DENIM CONTENTS

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DENIM IN-DEPTH

Seoul searching A Korean start-up is making bags from leftover jeans and hopes a Milan trade fair will provide a global springboard.

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Sales Simon Yarwood Direct: +44 151 319 4977 Mobile: +44 7887 523872 Email: simon@worldtrades.co.uk

How trendsetting changed Tilmann Wrobel considers how the pendulum has swung from brands to mills when it comes to the genesis of novelty.

FACTORY TALK

@insidedenimWTP 28

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Heartbeat of the community

@insidedenimWTP

Investments in schools, healthcare and accommodation are among the ways mills take care of their employees.

@InsideDenim @insidedenimWTP

World Trades Publishing 2024 Contributions: The editor welcomes news items, articles and photographs for consideration and possible publication but no responsibility can be accepted for the loss or non-publication of such material. Opinions expressed by individual contributors do not necessarily reflect the view of the editor or publisher.

Clocking On: Paolo Gnutti The denim ‘wizard’ travels so frequently that time with his family in Northern Italy is all the more appreciated.

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Graphic origination by WTP. Printed by Bishops Printers, Walton Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 1TR All rights reserved. ISSN 2633-9463 World Trades Publishing 2024. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic, recording, photocopying or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

Inside Denim is published three times a year by World Trades Publishing, The Old Stone House, Teeton, Northampton NN6 8LH, UK.

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Whilst every effort is made to ensure accuracy in reproduction, no responsibility can be accepted for the technical content or for claims made by manufacturers for product performance that are published. Publication in Inside Denim cannot be construed as an endorsement for a claim or product by the publisher.

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Transformative times Denim designers Tilmann Wröbel and Paolo Gnutti share similar views on the lack of creativity in the industry. They argue that more inspiring collections could help sales pick up.

Innovation, which can be seen as another form of creativity, is driving change in the world of stretch fibres. New players are bringing novelty to the market, from Yulastic, a rubber-based stretch yarn developed by Yulex, to Candiani’s Coreva. Major suppliers such as The Lycra Company and Hyosung are progressively shifting their production from fossil fuels to renewable resources. Their lower environmental impact could help jeans score higher in future digital passports, says Hyosung’s Simon Whitmarsh-Knight.

Science behind the style explores the implications of these future mandatory digital passports in the European Union, as other countries consider adopting the principle. They will provide information for all parties, down to the recyclers. They will no doubt add to a company’s costs, but they will also help to clearly distinguish which of two products is the more sustainable and ethical.

Ultimately, transparency serves not only to inform but also to educate. I don’t expect these future scoring systems to be flawless, but I do believe they can be transformative, not just in the EU but across the board.

Sophie Bramel Co-Editor / Technical Editor sophie@worldtrades.co.uk

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verproduction of clothing, and consumer goods in general, has emerged as a key issue whose ramifications have negative impacts across the board. Within the industry, it keeps prices down, though inflation has hit so many other products and services globally. Consumers may be happy to dress on the cheap, but I would bet they would prefer clothes made in better quality fabrics and cuts. This could be one solution to slow down the soaring return rates for online purchases.

Overproduction, with its twin overconsumption, also affects the next-to-last stage of a garment’s use, or life, as it is now called, as second-hand clothing. In this issue, we dig deep into the intricacies of this global trade, on which millions of people depend for their livelihood and which is alive with solutions to give all clothes, including jeans, a new life, from the street markets of Africa to trendy Seoul boutiques.

Simon Giuliani, this issue’s guest commenter, identifies yet another detrimental offshoot of overproduction. He says it has led to consumers losing appreciation for the craftsmanship, design and quality materials that go into a garment’s make. As head of marketing and sustainability for denim mill Candiani, he knows well the care and attention that goes into the production of a premium pair of jeans.

On this count, denim heads will be happy to hear that Momotaro is back with a fresh new logo and store in Kyoto for jeans that are meticulously crafted from denim fabrics woven on vintage looms by highly skilled artisans. CEO Masataka Suzuki is a true believer in slow fashion, which he suggests will become more important in an increasingly digital and artificial intelligence-driven world.

GUEST COMMENT

“We need to produce what we sell, not the other way around”

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GUEST COMMENT

he fashion industry, often celebrated for its creativity and trendsetting power, faces a pressing environmental crisis. The rapid cycles of fast fashion and non-transparent supply chains have led to a system that prioritises profit over the planet. Despite the growing awareness and discussions about the need for sustainable practices, the industry’s strong focus on price continues to impede progress.

Simon Giuliani, head of marketing and sustainability for Candiani, calls for a better alignment of industrial business goals with responsible production practices.

One of the key issues that needs to be addressed, he says, is overproduction.

Overproduction stands as a formidable obstacle in the fashion industry’s journey towards sustainability.

The surplus of clothing far exceeds demand, leading to a price-driven sales strategy. This relentless pursuit of low-cost production often comes at the expense of quality, sustainability and ethical considerations. In their pursuit of competitiveness, Western countries have heavily relied on cheap, long-distance supply chains. Despite efforts to introduce regulatory frameworks to mitigate the fashion industry’s negative impact, this reliance persists. Imported garments, which account for 77% of all European purchases according to EURATEX, contribute significantly to the environmental and social costs of global production.

The consequences of overproduction extend beyond environmental damage. Consumers are becoming increasingly detached from products and brands, losing respect, interest and loyalty. The relentless pursuit of lower prices has eroded the value proposition of brands and their garments. This has created a fertile ground for fast fashion brands, which thrive on offering trendy, low-cost clothing. Consumers have lost appreciation for the craftsmanship, design and materials that go into making a garment. The emotional connection between consumers and their clothing has diminished, as evidenced by the exploding second-hand market.

I believe that the fashion industry should prioritise a controlled degrowth plan to rebalance demand and supply and that this transition should be based on value generation, just like it happened with food 20 years ago.

This plan involves reducing over-production by putting people and product back on centre stage and redefining traditional business models to decouple them from price predominance. We need to produce what we sell, and not the other way around, and innovation is our bridge between sustainability and competitiveness.

Through advancements in technology, the implementation of Industry 5.0, and data analytics, we can engineer smart products and design lean business models to achieve a new efficiency that comprises environmental and financial sustainability.

It is also necessary to connect with consumers in a new way by providing education through edutainment and transparency to visualise the value of craftsmanship, materials and ethical considerations behind each garment. Building a fresh relationship with the brand through various customer services, such as repair, take-back programmes and upcycling, will enable brands to establish a new relevance that aligns with current conversations. By doing so, we can encourage consumers to appreciate the value of their clothing again instead of the price. Not to mention, if you produce on demand, locally, using responsible, smart materials while ensuring a safe and healthy environment for workers, you will automatically comply with the upcoming regulations of the institutions guiding Western countries.

Our mill, Candiani Denim, a family-owned Italian textile manufacturer, has been dealing with these topics and developing solutions since 1974, when the area surrounding the mill was declared Italy’s first regional park and nature reserve. With innovation as our main driver, we started to adapt our production processes to align with the regulations of the nature reserve and to engineer our products, focusing not only on aesthetics and performance but also on environmental responsibility.

The Fashion Transparency Index analysed that if we were to cease garment production today, we would have enough clothing to sustain six generations.

Therefore, we believe that future products must be high quality, durable and designed to last to extend their lifespan across multiple wardrobes. Additionally, high-quality guarantees for maximum recyclability at the end of their life cycle. We have developed circular materials such as Coreva, the world’s first biodegradable and compostable stretch denim, and Re-Cyclone, a premium post-consumer recycled denim, to minimise waste and the use of new natural resources and to promote a circular economy.

We went beyond fabric engineering and tried envisioning a model to rebalance demand and supply by connecting the manufacturer directly with the consumer.

The Candiani Custom micro-factory in the heart of Milan allows customers to design and customise their own jeans on a journey from cotton seed to final product. We produce the jeans entirely in the micro-factory through a resized industrial process and deliver made-to-measure jeans. Amongst many benefits, this on-demand, direct-to-consumer approach empowers consumers, making them feel proud of what they wear, and eliminates traditional inefficiencies. The relationship with our customer is built on trust and transparency, which convert into loyalty and growth.

By prioritising value generation, education and circularity, the fashion industry can create a more sustainable and resilient future. Shifting away from a price and volume-driven model and embracing innovative practices can help companies build long-lasting relationships with consumers and contribute to re-establishing a healthier environment for business and the planet.

GUEST COMMENT 05 ISSUE 14 / 2024

Consumers have lost appreciation for the craftsmanship, design and materials that go into making a garment.

PHOTO: GIORGIO FIGINI

INDUSTRY NEWS

Industry News Ocean plastics a ‘stepping stone’ to next-gen materials Environmental organisation Parley for the Oceans is expanding its partnerships to support ‘next gen’ materials and helping companies transition from virgin plastics as part of its AIR – avoid, intercept and redesign – strategy.

It has partnered Sky High Farm Universe for jeans and a jacket – made with banana fibre from Bananatex dyed with wood PHOTO: PARLEY waste from Nature Coatings.

From its launch in 2008, Parley focused on seminars, moving into facilitating the collection of ocean-bound plastics, then working with textiles makers such as FENC in Taiwan to provide recycled polyester to brands. One of the most well-known of these collaborations is the Adidas Parley knitted shoe ranges.

Federico Tarditi, head of global partnerships at Parley, told Inside Denim: “For the ‘avoid’ part of the strategy, we look at company’s whole operations, from products, to events, to their office, to help them to avoid virgin plastic. The second part is we intercept plastic from water and upcycle the product. We offer that traceability and collaborate on clothing, footwear and sunglasses.”

Another example of ‘redesign’ is a jacket made with a mushroom chitosan from Tomtex, as well as an insulation material made with seeds from the wetlands by Ponda Biobuff. “That’s what we’re looking at more now, we’re looking to implement these next-gen materials into the supply chain of our partners. The plastic is a stepping stone into these new materials, but the development and implementation of these new materials could take five to 10 years.

Mr Tarditi added: “Designers are asked to change but if they don’t have access to the materials it is very difficult. It’s good for people to reimagine a better future. Our approach is about making it desirable to make these changes.”

06 INSIDE DENIM

HeiQ creates novel cooling effect for jeans GQ Apparel, a tech apparel brand based in Thailand, has partnered with Swiss chemicals company HeiQ in its newly launched denim segment. The GQ Cool Tech Jeans are enhanced with a localised application of HeiQ Cool, a biobased technology, that is said to provide an immediate and continuous cooling effect.

Addressing the hot weather typical of Thailand, the concept underwent extensive testing with more than 500 prototypes – 95% of consumers who took part in a wearer trial preferred the GQ Cool Tech Jeans to their usual ones.

George Hartel, GQ Apparel’s chief commercial officer, said: “At GQ Apparel, we’ve always pushed the boundaries of what’s possible in apparel by embracing technology.

Our partnership with HeiQ marks another bold step in our journey to solve real-world challenges through innovation.

“With GQ Cool Tech Jeans, we’re not just setting a new standard for denim in Southeast Asia – we’re redefining comfort in a way that truly resonates with our customers. This collaboration showcases our commitment to the relentless pursuit of solutions that make life better for people living in hot climates.”

Mike Abbott, head of HeiQ’s textiles unit, added: “This collaboration not only strengthens our presence in the Southeast Asian market but also highlights our commitment to developing differentiating biobased solutions.”

Qwstion presents banana denim Swiss company Qwstion, owner of Bananatex, has unveiled a denim made from abacá, a banana species grown in Philippines. The fabric is made by turning fibres into paper, which is spun into yarn and then woven in Taiwan for non-denim applications, such as bags and footwear. Working with an Italian denim mill, the denim behaves like any cellulosic, Mattia Rottoli, head of textile development at Qwstion, told Inside Denim.

Recover poised for growth Spanish recycled cotton specialist Recover has undergone significant growth, with a 38% increase in its workforce between 2022 and 2023. It announced the figure in its 2023 sustainability report, in which it highlighted its projects with Evlox, Jeanologia, Lands’ End and C&A.

Candiani’s recycling network Italian mill Candiana has created an R&D programme, Re-Cyclone, dedicated to reducing waste and developing recycled denim fabrics. It has partnered Humana People to People Italia, a garment collector that will set aside unwearable jeans and remove buttons, zippers and patches. Filatura Astro will then shred and spin them into yarns for Candiani.

To scale up, it has also partnered with Sharabati in Egypt.

Brown cotton adds depth Montreal-based denim brand Naked & Famous is introducing a range of selvedge jeans made from naturally coloured organic cotton grown and supplied by FoxFibre. The fabric is manufactured in Japan and made from an undyed weft in a brown shade and an indigo rope-dyed warp. FoxFibre cotton is grown by Vreseis, a company founded by Sally Fox, who has been growing organic naturally coloured cottons since 1982.

Denim Futures welcomes 13,000 Innovations platform the Mills Fabrica has published its Impact Report for 2023, in which it highlights the progress of the companies it supported, as well as the impact of its events and initiatives. From October 2023 to March 2024, its London-based space hosted The Denim Futures exhibition, which featured 42 brands, including Advance Denim, AGI Denim, Jeanologia, Levi’s and Natural Coatings. It attracted more than 13,000 visitors.

The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) has PHOTO: HKRITA developed a system for removing dye from wastewater from denim mills using “combinative adsorption and regeneration”.

Adsorption of dyes using activated carbon is a common treatment method but one that generates adsorbent that has to be disposed of once it is saturated with dye. This, however, generates solid waste.

In this new project, HKRITA has developed “an in-situ physiochemical approach” that combines the regeneration of dyes with the adsorption.

First, the dye wastewater is poured into specially designed apparatus containing metal-doped alumina to act as the adsorbent, trapping dyes commonly used in denim production such as indigo blue and sulphur black. These dyes are negatively charged, while the adsorbent is positively charged.

This process turns the wastewater into a clear and colourless solution.

Once the adsorbent becomes saturated, ozonated water is introduced. The metal oxide on the adsorbent surface facilitates the generation of hydroxyl radicals in the ozonated water. These radicals break the molecular bonds of the dye molecules on the adsorbent, converting them to more harmless substances, like water and carbon dioxide.

The adsorbent is regenerated for use in another cycle. According to HKRITA, it can maintain adsorption capacity of more than 90% over ten cycles.

“Its outstanding reusability minimises the disposal of spent adsorbent,” HKRITA said, “and decomposing dyes into simpler molecules eliminates toxic air emissions.”

The treated water meets the necessary standards for reuse in denim production, contributing to water reuse and reduced water consumption in mills.

HKRITA is also working on a mechanical method to separate denim fabric and recover the dyed cotton warp and weft weaving components (pictured).

Indigo-dyed yarn is recovered and preserved in good quality for further recycling.

It said the system can handle six common types of denim fabric such as left-hand twill and right-hand twill which account for over 90% of the denim fabric in the market, and uses AI to detect fabric weaving structure, warp yarn density, fabric orientation and processability.

Italian-grown cotton revival supported by Haelixa Traceability technology provider Haelixa has renewed an existing partnership with Italian clothing retail group OVS. Their partnership centres on marking and tracing cotton grown in Italy, with a view to offering “trust throughout the supply chain”.

At one time, cotton production was fairly common in the south of Italy, but farmers moved to other crops in the 1960s when clothing manufacturers began using high volumes of synthetic fibres, with imports satisfying demand for cotton.

With interest in extending the concept of 100% made in Italy to raw materials, cotton production has begun again on farms in Puglia and Sicily.

For two years running, Haelixa has integrated its DNA markers into a proportion of the Italian-grown cotton, applying them at a gin close to one of the farms. The fibres are tested throughout the manufacturing process, allowing OVS to state with certainty that the clothing in its special collections uses cotton from these local sources.

Haelixa chief executive Patrick Strumpf said this DNA marking is increasing brand trust and supporting OVS’s sustainable product claims.

The clothing retail group’s head of corporate sustainability, Simone Colombo, said: “Our goal is to approach 5% of our cotton requirements from cultivation in Italy within a few years.”

Pakistan-based Artistic Milliners (AM) has bought Dickies’ garment-making factory in Parras, Mexico, owned by VF. The vertical denim and jeans maker operates wash hub Star Fades International (SFI in Los Angeles and has offices in Guatemala. AM has also formed partnerships with local companies, such as Denimville.

INDUSTRY NEWS

AM buys Dickies factory

Partners grow Contra Denim Turkish mill Kipas Denim has expanded the Contra Denim collection – made with Archroma’s Halo and laser from Jeanologia – from black to indigo and other colours. The partners described the collection as laser- and laundry-friendly, with colours that are deep and durable. Wash-down vintage effects and high contrasts are achieved via washing or laser techniques.

Archroma claims it delivers a substantially reduced environmental footprint compared with the industry-standard denim finishing process while reducing yarn shrinkage and improving garment tensile strength.

OCA highlights in-conversion The Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) has teamed up with Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) for its autumn awareness raising campaign. OCA is supporting growers as they transition from conventional to organic farming, which can take three years. The campaign, #BehindTheSeams, will explain why it is important to help farmers weather the interim period.

Galy raises $33m Bioreactor-grown cotton start-up Galy has closed an oversubscribed $33 million Series B financing led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) with additional participation from new investors H&M Group and Inditex. The funds will fuel the expansion of its research and development on its cellular agriculture platform and its flagship product, Galy Cotton.

Levi’s expands Haus of Strauss Levi's is adding to its Haus of Strauss locations, with the next venue planned for Paris. The first Haus opened 20 years ago in Los Angeles, with locations also in London, Tokyo and Mexico City. The locations are described as “a haven where talent, creatives and industry leaders can come and experience the best expression of the Levi’s brand”.

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HKRITA makes dyes and water reusable

SCIENCE BEHIND THE STYLE

The software programs developed by machinery makers and chemicals suppliers have given the denim industry a head start in environmental scoring systems. These digital tools provide data to plug into future digital product passports. But how many gaps remain, and can information be transferred from one platform to another?

Tonello’s Metro platform monitors impacts and delivers an A-to-F grade for each individual product that has been processed by its equipment.

PHOTO: TONELLO

Passport to compliance

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ompliance may not be the key word of the year, but it could be the word of the decade. The notion of responsibility came to prominence when the Rana Plaza building collapsed in Dhaka in 2013. This is when it became all too clear that brands and retailers have a responsibility for working conditions in their supply chain. It propelled the notion of compliance to the forefront, and made monitoring social and environmental impacts a given, at least for the most forward-thinking companies.

Looming legislation is now powering the trend. The European Union’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) came into force on July 18 this year. Among its myriad facets, it stipulates that products sold in the bloc will have a “single, digital entry point to access information about the environmental sustainability of products”, aka a Digital Product Passport (DPP). This tracing and grading mechanism has several goals, one is to help consumers and businesses make informed choices when purchasing products by providing data on a product’s impacts, another is to help enforcement authorities perform checks and controls.

While the perimeter of the European ecodesign regulation has been fairly clearly defined, its implementation is still a work in progress. By 2030, all products sold in the EU will require a digital product passport detailing information on materials and chemicals, environmental impacts, repairability and recycling potential. But the final IT and data specifications will not be known until the end of 2025.

The EU’s Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR), also a part of its Green Deal, has chosen a set of 16 life cycle assessment-based indicators, which gives an idea of the possible scope of the future DPP. It is expected to become mandatory from 2027 onwards, applying to progressively smaller-sized companies.

A DDP for each individual product A report by ABI Research, a technology intelligence firm, estimates that by 2030, some 62.5 billion DPPs will have been created in the apparel sector. This, it projects, will generate $1.59 billion in revenues for supporting software and IT suppliers. Digital IDs for individual products are already common in the luxury sector. Ralph Lauren says it is activating 88 million digital product IDs in the course of 2024. The US corporation first introduced digital IDs for authentication purposes in 2019, and has since expanded their role to accompany its circular economy data strategy, with data related to transparency and traceability.

SCIENCE BEHIND THE STYLE The data these software platforms provide is presumed to be accurate and reliable, as they come directly from the makers of the machines in laundries around the world. But they only cover the finishing stages of denim manufacturing and, though it may be difficult to alter or doctor them, they are technically self-reported. Jeanologia recently teamed up with GoBlu, a chemicals management company, to add an extra layer of reliability to its EIM scoring system. “It was important for us to involve an independent player in the process of developing our new verification program,” says Ms Garcia, noting that GoBlu’s capacity in IT solutions and data intelligence adds to Jeanologia’s competences.

Chemicals suppliers have also been early providers of impact calculators. These global players face constant chemicals-bashing, and they have the resources to develop digital monitoring systems. Swiss specialty chemicals supplier Archroma offers such a platform, the One Way Impact Calculator, which, combined with a Sustainability Improvement Program, helps customers optimise processes, reduce impacts and ensure compliance with restricted substances lists.

Distressed by widely circulated figures on excessive water usage in indigo dyeing, Peter Zinser, CEO and co-founder of reduced indigo specialist BluConnection set up a rating system years ago. It is designed to help the industry counter the dominant narrative for one of its major suspected hotspots. He believes that excessive water usage is not due to indigo dyeing but rather to wet processes used to fade garments. BluConnection’s online platform provides customers with customised tracking and impact information, accessed via a QR code.

Jeanologia’s Environmental Impact Measurement (EIM) system has become an industry benchmark for laundry processing.

PHOTO: JEANOLOGIA

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Laundries lead Jeanologia introduced its Environmental Impact Measurement (EIM) software in 2009. It was initially designed as an internal monitoring system for its own product development teams, before being made available to its customers. “Brands began adopting it in 2014,” Begoña Garcia, Jeanologia’s head of R&D and sustainable processing, tells Inside Denim. The software platform, available on subscription, is now used by 400 laundries and 80 brands globally and delivers a rating for a product’s impacts at finishing.

The company based in Valencia, Spain, has continually updated its software platform. New features have been added over the years, such as a dashboard in 2022, and a more scientific set of benchmarks for specific product categories in 2023, covering four key impact areas: water and energy consumption, chemicals and worker impact. It has become a near standard in the denim sector, as it compares industry averages with individual scores, and a full-fledged product development tool, as its scoring system is easy to use and understand.

“Brands can analyse different production centres.

They can compare two options to see what impact they have on a product’s score and decide if it makes sense to change a process,” says Ms Garcia who created the program. These benchmarks, she adds, are continually updated to align with industry practices and to encourage permanent progress.

Tonello, a maker of laundry equipment based in Italy, has devised its own digital monitoring platform called Metro Consumption. “It measures a laundry’s actual consumption, including that of machines, garments and processes. It makes it possible to set specific sustainability goals and understand when, where and how to take action to increase efficiency.

It also generates an environmental passport that reports the actual data of water and energy consumed for each individual garment and the calculation of the carbon footprint related to the finishing process,” says Alberto Lucchin, Tonello’s marketing and sustainability manager.

While Jeanologia’s scoring system is based on a three-level colour-coded scale (low, medium and high impact), Tonello has adopted A-to-F ratings. In both cases, the data provided by the platform can be used both internally, for customers, and externally to provide consumers with information on a product’s make and impacts. “While much of the data is used internally and in B2B settings to optimise processes, it is increasingly being leveraged to communicate sustainability to consumers,” says Mr Lucchin.

SCIENCE BEHIND THE STYLE 10 INSIDE DENIM

Filling in the gaps However smart and easy to use they are, sustainability monitoring systems developed by chemicals companies or machinery manufacturers only provide data for their part of the garment making and selling process. But the is no need to worry, dozens of start-ups have been founded to fill in the gaps. They promise to cover supply chains from farm to store shelf and to provide assistance in compliance and sustainability goals. The Higg Index is an early provider of such data. The platform, now hosted by Worldly, has recently upgraded its product impact calculator to cover a company’s scope 3 emissions. Countless others, in the likes of Green Score, Peftrust, Trustrace, Textile Genesis, to name a few, offer all-encompassing PEF and life cycle assessment (LCA) services to monitor progress and share data, in various forms, internally and externally.

Denim Authority, a denim manufacturer based in Tunisia, has chosen to work with Dutch traceability solutions company Aware. Its system is based on a physical tracer, which is embedded in recycled fibres and secured by a blockchain. Like many traceability experts, including Ms Begoña at Jeanologia, the company believes that a ‘fibre backwards’ approach is excessively complicated and prone to error. Aware believes that a solid traceability program starts with raw materials and then proceeds to all subsequent processes.

AGI Denim, a vertical denim manufacturer based in Pakistan, has recently teamed up with Green Story, a sustainability analytics platform with expertise in LCAs. Based in Toronto, Canada, and Utrecht in the Netherlands, its services include the creation of a digital product passport with a QR code. This will allow AGI Denim customers to prepare for upcoming legislation and communicate the provenance and journey of its denim products to consumers.

Dutch traceability solutions provider Aware embeds a mineral tracer into fibres.

PHOTO: AWARE

Pakistan-based jeans manufacturer AGI Denim has adopted Green Story’s traceability and impact measuring services.

PHOTO: AGI DENIM

Connecting the dots While certain phases of the jeans-making process are highly digitised and thus near ESPR-ready, collecting data for other processes, especially the sourcing and processing of natural raw materials, remains a challenge. Here, too, many suppliers of specialised traceability solutions have been founded. These include those that use a physical tracer, such as FibreTrace, ADNAS or Haelixa, and those that rely on forensics, such as Oritain, but they have a small market share.

Future DDPs will require compiling data across an entire supply chain, and will thus require that these varied solutions and technologies can work together, merge and exchange data in a secure, reliable and non-alterable process. Data security is key, but so will be data interoperability. “Interoperability is inevitable,” says Stéphane Popescu, founder of COSE 361, a French sustainability consultancy.

“Today, the technologies are not yet mature. But take email. Whatever system you use, gmail, outlook, or whatever, we can send each other emails without ‘interruption’ because service providers have made their platforms interoperable,” he tells Inside Denim. He doesn’t see why impact monitoring and traceability should not be the same, and believes interoperability will be “accelerated by regulations such as the EU’s ecodesign regulation and digital product passport”. A solution provider may want to keep its customers in a closed system, but he says this is “untenable in the long term” and contributes to “traceability fatigue”. While he fears that brands will limit their investment in DPPs to basic compliance requirements, Mr Popescu says “companies should use ESPR and DPP as a means of adding value, whether economic or intangible, to strengthen their position on the market.”

Future legislation will benefit companies that have made the most progress in their sustainability strategies and have the data to back up their claims. Nicolaj Reffstrup, co-founder of Ganni, sees DPPs not only as an opportunity to increase the level of information and transparency a company offers its consumers, but also as an opportunity to manage product sustainability data more efficiently. “It is easy to see the hurdles and uncertainties, but we should all be excited about the data shift that will happen in the coming years. The quicker you prepare for compliance, the smoother the transition will be for you and your customers,” he says.

Imposing that products display their sustainability score will create a level playing field for the industry. It should also have a positive impact on suppliers, as instead of having to provide specific data for each individual customer’s sustainability requirements, a single standardised set for all would streamline their obligations. Digital product passports could then also be a mill’s sesame moment to a lighter compliance load.

SCIENCE BEHIND THE STYLE

Sellers working in the Nakakero Road market in Kampala, Uganda.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

The tangled trade of second-hand clothing

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hat really happens to the used clothes we donate to charity without a thought?

Numerous reports have been published on the second-hand clothing trade and its repercussions, with media relaying striking images of dumping grounds in the vicinity of the markets of Kantamanto, in Accra, Ghana or Kampala in Uganda, not to mention the Atacama Desert in Chile. Their findings vary widely. Does textile waste make up less than 10%, as some claim, or 40%, the figure most often quoted in the media and based on a widely publicised document by the Or Foundation?

The trade in second-hand clothing is complex and global. Like many waste management sectors, it is not a paragon of transparency. Last month, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) held its first-ever conference on textiles. The Brussels-based organisation brought together representatives from Europe, Africa and Asia to shed light on the intricacies of a highly convoluted but inherently circular economy.

We know that shiploads of second-hand clothes are transported from developed countries to Africa, Pakistan, Chile and more, where they are sold in sprawling street markets. But how many end up in dumping grounds or form tentacles on shorelines is a topic of much debate.

We know where the market for second-hand clothing starts: in our overfull closets. But what happens once we have donated them to charity?

Each stage of their odyssey, from street bin to market stall and to landfill, generates revenue for businesses large and small. Calling them ‘waste’ is a first friction point in understanding the sector, and this was the subject of a panel talk at the BIR conference.

SCIENCE BEHIND THE STYLE The European Union is taking steps to better manage discarded clothing, specifically with Extended Producer Responsibility frameworks, which are designed to help finance a stronger infrastructure for reuse, repair and recycling. France established one for textiles and footwear in 2008, the Netherlands and Hungary have one, and a voluntary system exists in the Flanders region of Belgium. The amount of post-consumer textiles collected is expected to increase when their separate collection becomes mandatory in the European Union on 1 January 2025. Maud Hardy, general manager of ReFashion, the French producer responsibility organisation, says that the government has requested the organisation double collection rates by 2028. A prospect she finds daunting. In 2023, 268,161 tonnes of used clothing, home textiles and footwear were collected in France, or almost 4 kg per inhabitant.

In Germany, SOEX operates a large-scale textile sorting plant that includes up to 400 different categories for products that are shipped and sold worldwide.

PHOTO: SOEX

Bins of Swiss collector and sorter Texaid. “For items that cannot be reworn, we need both open and closed loop recycling,” said Anna Pehrsson, the company’s head of circularity at the BIR conference on textiles.

PHOTO: TEXAID

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The second-hand clothing business originates in developed countries, where bring-back containers, retailer take-back schemes and charities are the first to capture our unwanted stuff. These used clothes, home textiles and shoes are directed to collectors and sorters who separate what can be reworn, and thus resold, locally or abroad. The ‘crème’, which represents around 5% of total collected volumes, usually stays in Western Europe. Depending on their quality, the remaining rewearable items are sold to wholesalers for further sorting and exported worldwide. Second-grade textiles are typically sent to Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the lowest qualities to Asian markets, and a special grade of lightweight garments known as ‘tropical mix’ is exported to sub-Saharan Africa. This is the initial sorting process that used clothing undergoes according to a report, “LCA-based assessment of the management of European used textiles”, published in 2023 by Norion Consult, a Danish consultancy, for EuRIC textiles, the textile division of the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation.

This reusable portion of the clothing collected in developed countries is believed to represent roughly 55-60% of volumes collected, and probably a larger proportion of a collector’s revenues. What cannot be reworn, can have value. Cotton-rich textiles are cut into squares and sold as industrial cleaning wipes, often on site, and other non-rewearable items can be used to make various insulation materials. These open-loop recycling circuits are another source of income for collectors, and which they would not call downcycling.

But this first leg of the used clothing trade faces increasingly difficult times, due to a variety of factors, says Mariska Boer, president of EuRIC Textiles and co-owner of Boer Group, a Dutch collector and sorter. With the rise of fast fashion and even more so with ultra-fast fashion, the quality of second-hand clothing has steadily declined.

Peer-to-peer resale platforms are also drying up this sector’s resources. Meanwhile, their energy and labour costs have risen. “Sorting remains largely manual, as automated systems are not fully efficient, and wages account for 70% of our operating expenses,” she says.

“If well sorted, textiles have a big potential for reuse,” says Ms Boer, but she points out that reuse and recycling are two fundamentally different markets. “While there is a business model for reuse, there is none for recycling. Today, the reuse market is funding the recycling one.” She calls for financial incentives to make recycling commercially viable for collectors and sorters, and would like to see restrictions put on the import of throwaway fashion into Europe.

SCIENCE BEHIND THE STYLE 14 INSIDE DENIM

Speakers at a panel talk at the BIR Textiles Circularity event. From left to right: Beatriz Fernandez (UNEP), Michelle Wilson (WasteAid), Peter Lund-Thomson (professor at the Copenhagen Business School), Marlvin Owusu, (Ghana Used Clothing Dealers Association), Mariska Boer (EuRIC Textiles) and moderator, Alan Wheeler (UK Textile Recycling Association). PHOTO: BIR

Fit for reuse or not?

While the recycling infrastructure in Europe is at a very early stage of industrialisation, the notion of waste hierarchy recommends reuse before recycling.

Furthermore, the global trade in second-hand clothing is a source of livelihood for many in the Global South. A vast majority of Ghanaians, some 95% of the population, consume used clothing, as reported by the Swiss Academy for Development (SAD) in 1997. Teresiah Wairimu, chair of the Mitumba Consortium Association of Kenya, who participated in the BIR conference via video, says her organisation represents “two million people directly employed in the used clothing industry and more than 20 million others depending on it for their livelihood”.

In 2019, the European Union exported 1.3 million tonnes of used clothes, up from 400,000 tonnes in 2003, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA). Africa is the main market, accounting for 46% of exports, followed by Asia (41%), non-EU European countries (11%) and South America (1%). While some countries are calling for a ban on the export of second-hand clothing to non-OECD countries, both exporters and importers of these sorted and baled goods strongly oppose such measures. The issue hinges on differing perceptions of what second-hand clothing is: is it waste or a resource?

The codes for used textiles exported by the EU are divided into two product categories: worn textiles and clothing ‘fit for reuse’ are coded 6309 whereas ‘sorted and unsorted used rags and textile waste’ are coded 6310. The EEA report notes, however, that “many textiles are exported unsorted and most likely contain both items fit and unfit for reuse. So, the classification does not necessarily describe the actual state of what is exported.”

At the BIR conference, Marlvin Owusu, an executive member of the Ghana Used Clothing Dealers Association, confirms that “one of the biggest challenges we have is simply the misconception of second-hand clothing”. The association’s own research, “An evaluation of the socio-economic and environmental impact of the second-hand clothes trade in Ghana”, published earlier this year, found that waste represents 5% of the second-hand clothes imported. “Mostly everything is kept in circulation, we are contributing to a circular economy,” he insists.

Reports suggesting that imported bales contain 40% waste cannot be trusted, he argues, because “there is no business model in the world that could support a waste level of 40%”.

Ms Wairimu agrees that these figures reveal a misunderstanding of African markets. Her organisation has found that textile waste in Nairobi accounts for 1.89% of imports. “We are business people, we import goods for sale and our government regulates and forbids waste. In Kenya, we only import sorted clothes and we are leading the way on building a circular economy through textile use. It is very insulting to hear we are importing waste,” she says. The issue of waste management in Kenya is a completely different problem that has nothing to do with ‘mitumba’, the second-hand clothing trade, she adds.

WasteAid, a British organisation addressing waste management issues in developing countries, is about to publish its own report on textile waste generated by the Owino market in Kampala, Uganda. Michelle Wilson, director of programmes, says some 50,000 vendors sell second-hand clothing and 30,000 people visit the market every day. WasteAid surveyed more than 1,000 traders over a two-week period. “Our findings indicate that the actual waste generated resulted mostly from the tailors and machinists who transform used clothes for customers,” she says, noting that the organisation interviewed 600 tailors. “Our findings indicate that waste makes up only 1%, possibly as little as 0.9%, of used clothing imports.” However, she points out that some unsold clothes may not have been counted in WasteAid’s research. “Some may be sent to other urban centres in Uganda. Another category of unsold goods may be what is locally called ‘fagi’.” This term is used to describe items that are either not timely or not fashionable, and are usually set aside to be sold at a more opportune moment. “The initial findings, I'll be honest, surprised me,” she told the audience. WasteAid’s report will be released this October and received funding from Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Programme (SMET), a UK government fund.

‘Dead white man’s clothes’, as they are called in Africa, are a source of income and clothing for multitudes. How many of us in the Global North have ever given a thought to their possible repurposing, what we would call upcycling, by local tailors? Our unwanted clothes are adjusted for size, sleeves are removed or repaired, jeans can be fitted or flared by taking a panel from another, the possibilities are endless. As are the cuttings.

So what about the mountains of waste we equate with a faulty second-hand clothing trade? Attendees at the BIR conference, most of whom are in the recycling business, recommend that we take a closer look at those open-air dumps. There is certainly a lot of textiles, but there is also a lot of other types of garbage that should not be there.

The second-hand clothing trade is complex and mostly artisanal. Speakers at the BIR conference insist that it should not be conflated with the lack of an efficient waste management infrastructure in the Global South. And especially, as Lisa Jepsen, CEO of US-based collector and sorter Gerson & Shaw, tells Inside Denim, “we need to stop calling it waste”.

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EXHIBITIONS KINGPINS AMSTERDAM 23/24 OCTOBER 2024, DESTINATION AFRICA CAIRO 16/17 NOVEMBER 2024, DENIM PREMIERE VISION MILAN 4/5 DECEMBER 2024, MUNICH FABRIC START BLUEZONE 21/22 JANUARY 2025, KINGPINS NEW YORK 22/23 JANUARY 2025.

SCIENCE BEHIND THE STYLE

To lower the impact of stretch denim, Yulex, Lycra and Hyosung are harnessing the power of plants.

Natural progression

16 INSIDE DENIM

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here’s no getting away from the fact stretch fibres add comfort and shape for a certain segment of the denim market. While baggier styles have dominated the younger market for some time, stretch denim will always be in demand for women’s styles and might even become more prevalent again, if the recent inclusion of skinny jeans on catwalks is anything to go by.

Stretch fibres might only typically make up 2% of the fabric, but the addition of synthetic fibres from non-renewable sources increases the manufacturing footprint and blending elastane into cotton makes end-of life-solutions tricky. There are currently no widescale or easy ways to break down and recycle these blends – although progress is being made through R&D. As trials continue, Lycra and Hyosung have changed tack, looking for natural ingredients to add into the formula, and Yulex is hoping the rubber tree can provide an alternative option.

While Italian mill Candiani was the forerunner in the natural stretch space with the launch of its Coreva denim in 2020, Yulex has had its eye on the denim market for several years. The company has its roots in US-based Yulex Corporation, which spent years developing natural rubbers from guayule shrubs in Arizona, seeking to establish a US supply chain. Founder Jeff Martin and the team worked with outdoor brand Patagonia on an alternative to neoprene, and the companies launched guayule rubber-containing wetsuits in 2013.

On average, US farmers plant about 90 million acres of corn each year, with most grown in the Heartland region (20 states in the middle of the country) – it is the starch that will go into Lycra’s fibre. The US is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of corn in the world.

PHOTO: LYCRA

SCIENCE BEHIND THE STYLE

Fast forward just over a decade and Yulex has been busy: it has changed its raw material to latex extracted from rubber trees, then moved its supply chain from plantations in Sri Lanka and Guatemala to South East Asia. This summer, it launched two new products: Yulex 2.0, a stretchier version of its foams, and a stretch filament, Yulastic, billed as an alternative to elastane for the denim market, socks and elastics.

Sweet deal There is a similar focus on natural raw materials from Korean group Hyosung, which, earlier this year, announced a $1 billion investment in bio-based butanediol (BDO). The bio-BDO will be made using a process developed by US-based biomaterials developer Geno, and the funding will enable the building of a new manufacturing facility in Vietnam to enhance Hyosung’s existing site and create a full-service chain from raw ingredient to fibre.

Conventional BDO, often made from coal from China, is used to produce 2.5 million tonnes of polymers every year and is a $5 billion a year industry, according to Geno’s estimates. BDO is a precursor to PTMG, a major chemical intermediate that can be used to create everything from automotive plastics to electronics and shoes, and is combined with a smaller amount of MDI to make elastane. Geno’s technology uses various forms of sugar sources – industrial corn, sugarcane and sugar beets – and licenses the know-how to chemicals or fibre groups. “We provide the entire package, including engineering designs and the microbe that does the magic inside the fermentation tanks, converting sugar into BDO,” says Christophe Schilling, CEO of Genomatica.

Earlier this year, Hyosung received approval from the provincial government in southern Vietnam to produce bio-BDO at its factory in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, manufacture PTMG at a nearby factory in Dong Nai and then use this to mass-produce Regen Bio elastane at the Dong Nai spandex factory. It will mean the raw material will be derived from sugar cane, not the industrial corn that it is currently using for its bio offering.

“Although we will have to import the sugar cane from suitable supply chains, we will have a plant that can then make the whole product to the finished elastane, so that will mean a significant reduction in carbon emissions, as we are doing it all in one site,” Hyosung’s global sustainability director, Simon Whitmarsh-Knight, tells Inside Denim.

Yulex’s partner smallholder rubber farmers in Vietnam own less than 0.5 and up to about 22 hectares of rubber trees, with the average plot size being around two hectares (4.87 acres). The manufacturers producing Yulex Pure are compliant with European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).

PHOTO: YULEX

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Power of cooperatives The change of supply chain was partly driven by a desire to boost R&D by diversifying its manufacturing partners, but also to be closer to the footwear and clothing manufacturers in Asia, thereby slashing carbon emissions. For Mr Martin and now-CEO Liz Bui – who was born in Vietnam but immigrated to the US as a child after the war – that meant moving to Asia and travelling around Vietnam with organisations such as the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification to galvanise cooperatives of rubber farmers. “For these smallholders, their livelihood and their household income is derived from the small plot of land in their backyard,” Liz Bui tells us. Yulex now works with more than 240 smallholders in Thailand and 1,500 in Vietnam and has set up an Equitable Agriculture profit-share programme to provide better security of income for the farmers.

Tree latex consists of rubber particles or biopolymers but also contains dirt, oil, proteins, metals and other impurities. Yulex has proprietary technology and works with its partners’ systems to remove the proteins and impurities. The purified latex is branded as Yulex Pure, and is used to make Yulastic filament. Following trials at mills in Asia, and in consultation with technical specialist and general manager Idrish Munshi, the company can now offer a fine-denier filament, with ultra-fine deniers in development. Yulastic filaments have similar properties to elastane and also recover well, according to Dr Bui. “Natural rubber is a very good polymer – consider that aeroplanes have to use 100% natural rubber for their tyres,” she comments.

“We focus on the performance first, and Yulastic is 100% biobased so it also has a good sustainability story, that is a bonus.”

The company is expecting to have some fabric samples ready for Kingpins Amsterdam in October, with a view to having a wider range on show with mill partners in the New Year. “What we want to offer is choice,” adds Dr Bui. “We are working with experts, key opinion leaders and denim manufacturers to develop this. What is going to be important is which brands adopt it first.”

SCIENCE BEHIND THE STYLE 18 INSIDE DENIM

Hyosung commercialised biobased elastane made with 30% industrial corn in 2022. It has a 20% lower carbon footprint than a comparable conventionally made elastane, according to a lifecycle assessment, and performs in the same way.

Its current biobased elastane offering now includes options made with higher bio-based content, with LCAs due soon.

Versatile crop Geno’s technology also underpins Lycra’s bio-derived offering: the company is going full steam ahead with creating an elastane with 70% renewable feedstocks – industrial corn – since partnering Qore, the maker of a BDO alternative called Qira and a joint venture between chemicals firm Helm and food corporation Cargill. Edible sweet corn makes up less than 1% of the corn grown in the US; most goes into industrial uses such as animal feed and ethanol while the starch goes into adhesives, packaging and fibres. Lycra’s development will bring income to the corn farmers in and around Ohio, many of whom operate family-run businesses and half of whom use wind-generated power.

One such supplier is Kuiper Farm, where Steve Kuiper operates a corn/soy bean rotation, incorporating rye as a cover crop, which builds organic matter and keeps the soil fertile. “One thing people don’t realise is that a big chunk of products that are made from petroleum can be directly replaced with products that are made from corn,” he says. “You can produce 4,000 different things out of corn, and I’m excited about our products being used in sustainable fashion.”

It is the corn’s starch that is used as a building block for Lycra’s fibre. Cargill’s biotechnology campus in Iowa will turn the corn into Qira, next supplying to Taiwan’s Dairen Chemical Corporation, which will use Qira to make PTMEG, before heading to Singapore to be made into bio-derived Lycra fibre.

Replacing non-renewable-derived content with Qira could reduce the fibre’s carbon footprint by as much as 44%, according to a lifecycle assessment.

The bio-derived Lycra fibre will consist of 70% renewable content derived from dent, or grain, corn and will be available at a large scale in 2025. It will deliver equivalent performance to traditional Lycra fibre and will help reduce customers’ carbon footprint. “Our message to denim brands is clear: transitioning to bio-derived Lycra fibre isn’t just a step forward in sustainability but also a way to stay competitive amid sluggish market demand,” says Ebru Ozaydin, global marketing director for denim and wovens at Lycra. “As sustainability becomes a core expectation rather than a luxury, denim brands will want to integrate innovations like bio-derived Lycra fibre into their production to ensure they remain resilient, accountable and flexible in an evolving market.”

Hyosung is investing heavily in Vietnam. The spandex plant, as a single factory, holds the largest production capacity among Hyosung's global production bases.

PHOTO: HYOSUNG

Regulatory stick With manufacturers and suppliers investing heavily in R&D and more sustainable products, there is a nervousness in some sectors about whether buyers will place the necessary volumes to fund their production and development. A slew of incoming regulations that will demand a more sustainable footprint for products sold in Europe should provide the nudge many are waiting for. “We will also need to see two or three leading retailers and brands really get behind new technologies, as that will then make the real difference.

That needs strong leadership,” says Mr Whitmarsh-Knight. The digitalisation of the supply chain, as companies prepare for Europe’s Digital Product Passport, should also boost ‘lower-impact’ textiles, as materials and ingredients will be more transparent and trackable, he suggests.

The need for more ‘sustainable’ versions of elastane is pressing, as the global apparel market grows. Although elastane makes up only around 1% of global fibre production, it carries “outsized importance” given that it is found in a large volume of products, according to the US-based Textile Exchange. In its 2023 Materials Report, the non-profit said elastane fibre production is increasing slowly but steadily, rising from 1.16 million tonnes in 2021 to 1.24 million tonnes in 2022.

Despite millions of dollars pouring into research around the recycling of elastane, it remains a sticking point, quite literally in some regards. Lycra used the Dornbirn Global Fibre Congress in September to update the market on its “promising results” on separating and making new Lycra fibres from textiles. “We have also designed a new Lycra fibre product that in the future can further ease this process. Everything is in lab stage for now but quite promising,” Alberto Ceria, Lycra’s senior applications development manager, tells us. “Bio-derived and recycling are independent programmes but our long-term vision is to converge and integrate these technologies together.”

A similar sentiment at Hyosung, where Whitmarsh-Knight says the ultimate goal is to make elastane with renewable resources and also have the technology to make it recyclable. “The industry is still looking at various sustainability options – is recycled better, or biobased, or is it something completely new coming down the line?” he adds. “Until the industry decides to go down one avenue, we want to offer a complete range of solutions.”

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DIALOGUE

Masataka Suzuki, president and chief operating officer of Momotaro’s parent group, Japan Blue Inc, tells Inside Denim why now is the right time to relaunch the brand and bring Japanese denim to a wider, global audience.

Artisan spirit in every thread

20 INSIDE DENIM

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enowned Japanese denim brand Momotaro has undergone a rebrand to boost its global standing, with a new website that will ease ecommerce, a fresh logo and a new store in Kyoto. Its latest designs and fabrics include novel blends with silk and cashmere, and its standard denim has been updated with finer weft threads.

All Momotaro’s jeans are made from Zimbabwean cotton, picked by hand to minimise fibre damage and impurities. The company uses a rope dyeing process, which dyes only the surface of the yarn, enabling beautiful fades. Select collections are hand-dyed using natural dyes. The denim is woven on vintage power looms, producing a mere 50 metres per day, while fabrics for its Gold Label are made on a hand loom, which makes just 80cm per day. The jeans are created on vintage Union Special sewing machines, which add “authentic features” such as twisting and puckering.

Q: Can you tell us why now is the right time for a rebrand?

A: Since launching our brand in 2006, we have been fortunate to receive support from many people. At the same time, we have seen a rapid increase in brand recognition among foreigners. With the goal of further refining the craftsmanship that Kojima is known for and expanding our global reach, we have taken this opportunity to announce our rebranding to the world.

What markets are most important for Momotaro Jeans and how do you plan to reach new consumers, for instance, in Europe?

We don’t focus on a specific market. What we offer is jeans, and we believe that jeans, by nature, have no borders. What makes our jeans unique is the spirit of our artisans: meticulousness, care, precision and simplicity, which have been cultivated by the aesthetic sensibilities of Japanese culture. We believe there is enormous potential in delivering this story to the world.

Japan Blue Inc’s chief operating officer Masataka Suzuki in Momotaro’s new store in Kyoto.

PHOTO: GOTTINGHAM IMAGE COURTESY OF JAPAN BLUE, AS AND STUDIO XXINGHAM

Can you tell us about some of your new fabrics, particularly the new blends with silk and cashmere. How did you adapt the weaving and dye processes?

Regarding silk, since it is a stretchy material, it is challenging to maintain its softness while ensuring it doesn't overstretch during the weaving process. Our old-fashioned power looms, our in-house knowledge, experience, and the expertise of our craftsmen, allow us to develop fabrics even from materials that are difficult to weave.

Can you tell us why traditional dyeing techniques are important?

Momotaro Jeans is defined by its Tokuno Blue colour, a beautiful deep indigo, that is achieved by combining traditional Japanese indigo dyeing techniques with synthetic indigo. The expertise and experience of our craftsmen, both in natural indigo dyeing and synthetic indigo, allow us to create a special technique for applying colour more evenly.

Japanese denim is renowned all over the world.

How has the love for Japanese denim grown over the years, and how do you see it developing in the eyes of younger consumers?

Our journey so far has been about communicating our dedication to craftsmanship, which has been appreciated by our customers. These customers, who resonate with our values, have been the ones to spread our brand. In other words, our brand’s value has been shared by those we consider fans. Moving forward, we aim to reach a broader audience, including younger customers, by leveraging owned media such as social media and expanding various types of content.

Right: Momotaro’s new fabrics include a blend of cotton and cashmere, which creates a fabric with a lightweight, ultrasoft feel.

PHOTO: JAPAN BLUE INC

What is your vision for the denim industry for the next 10 years?

Our company recognises the immense value and potential of Japanese denim, crafted with the manufacturing spirit and traditional techniques developed in Kojima, Okayama Prefecture. We are passionate about pursuing authenticity, with the desire to create denim that is unrivaled worldwide using Japanese craftsmanship. Building on this commitment, we aim to "deliver genuine denim to the world and the future”.

With the acceleration of the evolution of digital and AI [artificial intelligence], we believe that products with craftsmanship that can only be produced by human hands will have even higher value in the future. In this era of accelerating globalisation, where a great deal of content is available simultaneously and consistently all over the world, we would like people to experience the products of Momotaro Jeans, which are based on the unique value that can only be produced locally in Kojima, Okayama, in the Setouchi region of Japan.

DIALOGUE

Cotton heartland weaves a blue narrative The very essence of Japanese denim is rooted in a manufacturing process that values high-quality inputs, considered labour, skilled craftsmanship and traditional processes. Its concentration in Kojima district of Kurashiki in Okayama Prefecture is no coincidence: the area has a long history of spinning and weaving, as historically the land was too salty for rice cultivation and so became the country’s cotton producing region. At one time, it produced 90% of Japan’s school uniforms, but as synthetic fibres became dominant and textiles manufacturing became concentrated elsewhere, the region preserved its cotton skills and machinery and denim found a home.

Hisao Manabe, founder of Momotaro, aspired to become a designer in the textile industry and was fascinated by indigo dyeing. He established Japan Blue's predecessor, Collect Inc, in 1992 and in 1996 launched Ranpuya to manufacture indigo-dyed products. In 2014, Ranpuya and Collect Co merged to form Japan Blue Co, owning four brands: Momotaro Jeans, Setto, Japan Blue Jeans and Crown Label (denim suits).

Mr Manabe was instrumental in creating ‘Jeans Street’, a shopping district in Kojima, which has now become a mecca for denim fans and is home to 50 jeans stores.

At the end of 2021, Mr Manabe sold the Japan Blue group to Japanese private equity firm Karita & Company, with Mr Manabe and previous shareholders retaining 15% of the shares.

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Fans appreciate the slow and considered way the denim way is woven, on traditional looms and with skill. How will Momotaro maintain traditional techniques if the company grows?

We own old-fashioned power looms and vintage sewing machines at our manufacturing facilities, and as we continue to increase the number of these machines and educate the young craftsmen, we are actively working to expand production as well as maintaining the technique. At the same time, we aim to strengthen communication within the local community, and by doing so, we hope to collaborate and contribute to the further development of the Kojima region.

DENIM IN-DEPTH

Six start-ups from South Korea caught the eye at a recent major exhibition in Milan, none more so than a brand that turns old jeans into tote bags.

Seoul searching for used jeans

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gainst the odds, Troisième Objet, an upcycling brand from South Korea that uses old jeans to create tote bags, was one of the belles of the ball at the Mipel accessories exhibition in Milan in September.

A new feature at this, the 126th edition of Mipel, was a section given over to the Seoul Leather Manufacturer Support Center, an incubator facility run by the authorities in the South Korean capital to help start-up companies attain success. There are currently 300 small manufacturers operating at the centre, but its director, Hong Chang Uk, insists there are around 3,000 manufacturers making bags and other accessories in the city, with a further 300 start-up companies making high-end shoes.

22 INSIDE DENIM

Shared resources Mr Hong’s role begins with the selection of start-ups that he thinks will benefit from becoming part of the community at the centre. There, they have access to education and training resources to learn more about materials and techniques for turning them into beautiful products. There is also machinery they can share for cutting, stitching and finishing the things they make, and a professional photographic studio to help brands showcase their collections, all supported by the city.

The domestic market is strong in South Korea, Mr Hong explains. The country’s economy is the fourth-largest in Asia and the fourteenth biggest in the world. In its most recent forecast at the start of the third quarter of 2024, the International Monetary Fund foresaw full-year growth of 2.5% for South Korea this year. “But South Korea is a relatively expensive place to produce,” the centre’s director continues, “certainly in comparison to some of our neighbours.” This makes export growth a challenge, especially close to home. For this reason, the Leather Manufacturer Support Center has begun to look further afield for export clients, including in Europe.

South Korean start-up company Troisième Objet uses upcycled denim and cotton canvas to make tote bags.

PHOTOS: TROISIÈME OBJET

DENIM IN-DEPTH

The upcycling market is just getting started here and the initial donors of jeans were people I am close to.

SUNG EUN JUNG, TROISIÈME OBJET

Cutting edge The company’s founder explains that she washes and cuts up these garments herself. “The size, colour, detail and condition of each of the used materials are all different,” she says, “and that means you have to cut according to the suitability of each. This is why I cut them myself.” She explains that, even within a single design (the smallest bag, the Tana, is always 20x27x4 centimetres, for example), the varying status and size of the pieces of fabric that make up the patchwork mean mass-production in a factory would be impossible. Some show a back pocket, others a front pocket, others use fabric from the front of an old pair of jeans. The permutations would be endless if sufficient material were available.

Founder Sung Eun Jung washes and cuts all the donated denim garments herself to make the best use possible of the upcyclable parts.

PHOTO: WTP

Retro culture Enough usable old jeans and jackets are appearing in the supply-sort-washdisassemble-design-reassemble pipeline for Troisième Objet to produce 50 of these bags per month. Buyers of them at the moment are mainly young people in their twenties and Ms Sung says this has come as something of a surprise.

The brand’s monitoring of interest in its products shows plenty of people who are younger and older than this cohort clicking to find out more about Troisième Objet, but it is the twenty-somethings who seem keenest to follow this up with a purchase.

The founder’s conclusion is that this group is bolder about translating concerns about over-consumption and fashion’s environmental impact into buying decisions. “In addition, retro and Y2K culture is very hip among them and this fits well with our designs and mood,” she adds. “Our products have sold only in South Korea so far but our hope is that participating at Mipel will help introduce our products to customers in other countries.”

In the shot Something unexpected happened in Milan that may well help the brand achieve this aim. An Italian television channel, Canale 5, attended the opening day of Mipel and the Micam footwear exhibition that ran in parallel. It then ran a five-minute summary of the opening day as part of its main evening news broadcast. There was a lot to fit in because these are important industries in Italy and government ministers were in attendance to present a series of ideas for resolving the domestic sector’s recruitment crisis. The Canale 5 team only picked out a handful of products (from the thousands on show) to include in the piece, but among those that did feature were the denim and canvas bags from Troisième Objet.

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The price of uniqueness For the Mipel project, the centre invited six of the companies to prepare collections of products to put on display in Milan as examples of what the Seoul start-ups are capable of. Although Troisième Objet was one of the six, its founder, Sung Eun Jung, was unable to travel to Italy in person. Ms Sung’s focus on small leathergoods secured her place in the centre and is still an important part of her work. Nevertheless, it was her tote bags, constructed from upcycled denim and white cotton canvas that turned the most heads.

These bags, the Drian (medium and small) and the Tana, have a recommended retail price of more than $100 each. This can rise to more than $150 for the Drian Medium, a price-point at which many leather bags, from South Korea and elsewhere, are available.

Ms Sung’s conviction that her denim-canvas products are worth the money stems from the uniqueness of each one.

Uniqueness, of course, also implies a degree of unpredictability, which Troisième Objet experiences primarily because the denim it uses in its products comes to it through donations. “The upcycling market is just getting started here and the initial donors were people I am close to,” Ms Sung says, “such as friends and family. They became promoters of the brand and, through that, the number of donors is now increasing.” Therefore, the brand’s access to denim fabric still depends on family and friends handing over jeans and jackets that they no longer wear, but a wider circle of people is now involved.

DENIM IN-DEPTH

There was a time when designers and product developers would, logically and systematically, bring in fresh ideas for trends and fabrics that denim mills and factories would then strive to develop. Those times are (mostly) no more. Today, denim mills and factories are the instigators of trends. Tilmann Wröbel breaks down the process that has led to this inversion in trend defining denims.

How trendsetting changed camps

O

24 INSIDE DENIM

ne day in the early 2000s, I found myself sitting next to Gianluigi Candiani in a shuttle bus at a fabric trade show. He told me that for over 30 years his family had manufactured and presented two types of denim fabrics, a light and a heavy weight. Those days are long gone. As are those, in the 1960s, when American and Japanese denim brands would request laundries to beat their denim products with golf balls and all sorts of improbable objects to obtain worn down effects.

In the early 1990s, before specific denim fabric fairs came to be, we, the designers, would head to the Paris fabric show, seeking similar looks to source or develop for our own clients. We’d share our ideas, like the time when we were hunting with Pierre Morrisey for a denim fabric with a special coating, which Pierre would then turn into G-Star’s Kinetic denim, a trend that launched a whole new aesthetic. No mills had investigated this field yet, but we did find open-minded mill and laundry technicians happy to develop whatever effect even the smallest of our brands was looking for. These mills and laundries had the skills, the equipment, and the readiness to dedicate time to test new concepts.

Denim mills need to address demand from brands and retailers for low-impact processes and materials while staying on-trend, a fine line that Sharabati treads with talent.

PHOTO: SHARABATI

DENIM IN-DEPTH

(Left) A new jacquard loom at Indian mill Raymond Uco can weave patterns in very large repetitions, making it possible to create an incredible array of non-repeating motifs.

PHOTO: RAYMOND UCO

(Right) A Japanese ikat weave denim fabric illustrates an uncharted territory in the industry.

PHOTO: MONSIEUR-T.

In today’s crisis, brands should innovate and take risks, as they did in the past.

PAOLO GNUTTI, ISKO LUXURY BY PG

Famous for his trend-relevant, opulent and clever fabric developments, Paolo Gnutti, at Isko Luxury, is well aware of the new paradigm: “In today’s crisis, brands should innovate and take risks, as they did in the past. My collections focus on versatile, seasonless and gender-neutral denims that can be worn in Los Angeles, Tokyo or Oslo. Luxury, for me, means accessible designs that enhance individuality and comfort. Fashion should make you feel special, not just another number.” He thus describes, in diplomatic terms, the current design state-of-mind of brands and how it has led to the often uninspired and uninspiring fabrics that are on offer.

Meanwhile, denim trends for youth are focussing on bold jacquard weaves, as seen in the super-size jacquard looms that mills such as Raymond-Uco have recently acquired. They also favour unusual twill weaves that are looser or made with super thick yarns, crazy dirty casts or powerful colour overdyes. Not to mention the top-of-the-top trend of digitally-printed denims, seen at Prosperity’s Stella Blu, which has the potential to expand the denim prism as an art form or simply as a more sustainable solution.

A thrift shop in Antwerp showing the diversity of overdyeing and casts that were once commonplace.

PHOTO: MONSIEUR-T.

25 ISSUE 14 / 2024

A changing of the guard This situation has changed drastically. With the exception of a small coterie of major denim brands and high luxury labels, few designers and product developers suggest creative ideas for fabrics and finishes, preferring to choose from the products mills have developed on their own.

Is this because fashion has become so fast? Is it because subconsciously we expect expertise and technology to be automatically integrated into the products we buy? Whatever the case, most designers only accept to source a denim fabric or wash that has been fully vetted by the mill and that presents no risk for the buyer.

Tim Huesemann, Panther Denim’s director, confirms this shift: “15 to 20 years ago, our clients always supplied detailed fabric information. 12 years ago, we started presenting our own ‘feelings’, to offer something new. As a vertical mill, we kept an eye on denim trends in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong as much as in Europe and the USA.” Now Panther develops collections that address trends it has identified, such as DenimElegance, to meet demand for dressy silky denims; Downtown, a range which has a chic Paris edge; or Botanic Chic, a mix of fluidity and softness. Its fabrics are made from Lenzing’s Tencel, Indigo Modal, Tencel Matte or Ecovero.

DENIM IN-DEPTH

(Left) Varying finishing on the front and back of a denim fabric is another way to introduce novelty, as seen here at DyStar.

PHOTO: DYSTAR

(Right) Cult Swedish fashion brand Our Legacy has experimented with printed denim aesthetics, thus expanding, or questioning, the scope of what defines authenticity in jeans.

PHOTO: OUR LEGACY

26 INSIDE DENIM

Balancing act The market context may also be a guilty party here. Fact is, today more than ever, denim mills need to optimise their operations and time spent in R&D. Every cent counts, and every lost minute is a cent lost. Designers may well dream of a more creative future, and mills must balance demand for trend-relevant denims with their resources, to provide cost-competitive products.

Some point out that sustainability has become as important as style trends. “Comfort is a key feature today. As is timelessness, in a ‘less is more’ approach, so that garments can be worn for years.

To achieve this, a fabric needs to perform and have a timeless aesthetic,” says Dilek Erik, marketing director for Sharabati.

The dichotomy between sustainability and trend-relevance is particularly manifest at Candiani.

Under the direction of Alberto Candiani, Gianluigi’s son, the Italian mill has evolved from being a supplier of “trend-overload” denims, in the early 2000s, to a specialist in finely tuned mechanics combining style, trends and sustainability. “We envision denims that are both regenerated and regenerative. By taking into account a product’s end-of-life, Alberto has learned to engineer fabrics that anticipate the trends that shape the premium and luxury market. It is a creative kitchen that cooks up new style directions without forgetting to keep it clean,” says Candiani marketing director Simon Guiliani.

Driven by sustainability or by trends?

While I respect a mill’s right to keep its new developments under wraps, as does Candiani, it seems that our industry has embraced sustainability to such a level that it now tends to overshadow trends in weaves, casts, finishes and makes.

On the topic of trends and sustainability, denim guru Piero Turk observes that “we are finally, after years of considering cotton as evil, accepting that cotton is denim, and denim is cotton. I see that simplicity is more and more appreciated, and, for me, simplicity is the new luxury. It is good to see fewer ‘useless’ denim developments that ultimately go to waste. There is also a new view on recycling: how much energy is used to recycle fibres? What are the CO2 emissions of shipping tonnes of garments around the world for recycling? Is that sustainable?”

Obviously, trends in sustainability and in style are not the same. They may influence one another, but they can in no way replace one another. Trends happen. Freshness in style and design are necessary. Today however they are interpreted by talented designers working for denim mills, factories and laundries.

Then presented to buyers for brands or retailers. And as I like to say: sustainability is a must have, not a trend. Free your denim mind!

Tilmann Wröbel is the founder of Monsieur-T, the ‘denim lifestyle’ studio. He started his career as a haute couture designer before moving into streetwear and denim. He has worked as a designer and consultant for some of the world’s top brands. He is based in Düsseldorf, Germany, and Biarritz, France.

MONSIEUR_T_OFFICIAL/PHOTO: CHRISTIAN GEYR

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FACTORY TALK

Heartbeat of the community

28 INSIDE DENIM

E

very so often, the global media spotlight shines fleetingly on garment workers, who in many countries over the past few years have campaigned for higher wages and better conditions. It is only right that these stories are told, and while consumers would be aghast to see people working in poor conditions, a disconnect between clothing and the people that make them means that, sadly, workplaces are not always satisfactory, and the uneven spread of reward along the chain enables a system in which workers can suffer. While the global denim industry is in no way squeaky clean, there are many examples of mills and manufacturers that push against this narrative and look after their employees, their families and the communities, building stronger teams, better educated workers and nourishing a pool of inspired and ambitious future talent. These businesses value the vital input of their workforce, but these stories are not widely known.

AFM’s Regenerative Cotton initiative funds training and education workshops for farmers and communities, and is implemented by WWF Pakistan. The programme started with 500 farmers last year and is hoping to expand to 1,000 by the end of 2024.

PHOTO: AFM

FACTORY TALK: DENIM MILLS Denim mills around the world have proven to be caring and responsible businesses – from funding local schools and healthcare, to providing accommodation and donating to charity. Inside Denim went digging for some shining examples.

Egypt-headquartered Sharabati Denim has a well-rounded package for employees, which includes accommodation, healthcare and schooling. It links with local schools, hosts students and provides grants for universities. The company built 27 apartment buildings consisting of 376 units, while a central kitchen and bakery provide 3,500 free meals a day for staff in Egypt. Basic food supplies are distributed to employees as well as sent out to local charities, and staff can access a subsidised gym.

FACTORY TALK

We have followed in the path of our ancestors, who always kept in mind the village in which they grew up JOSE ROYO, TEJIDOS ROYO

Inspiring young people Educating the next generation is also a focus at Turkish mill Bossa. It is actively involved with several universities, teaching students about all stages of denim production, from the fibre to garment-making. As part of the Sector at the Campus (Sektör Kampüste) programme, led by the Turkish Ministry of Industry and Technology, Bossa prepares both online and face-to-face training sessions. “Students graduate with knowledge of denim and sustainability and we create a potential job pool,” explains research manager Deniz Civan Yigit. Alongside the university programme, the mill reaches out to primary and secondary schools. “We raise the students’ awareness and help them make their choices for the future,” she adds.

Similarly, Spanish mill Tejidos Royo provides students from Valencia’s College of Art and Design School (EASD ) and Madrid’s University UPM Fashion Design Centre with fabrics, the latter for a design competition in collaboration with H&M, the Circular Fashion Programme, with Royo’s experts on the judging panel.

Karachi’s NDM funds workshops to teach children about the importance of caring for the environment and society, focused around the UN’s SDG themes.

PHOTO: NDM

29 ISSUE 14 / 2024

During the summer, Sharabati hires holiday accommodation in a tourist village on the north coast. “The company coordinates all matters related to the resort through a dedicated supervision committee, which includes booking housing units and providing transport,” explains Dilek Erek, Sharabati’s global marketing director.

Healthcare provision is critical in countries where medical bills can be costly, and many mills offer health insurance and enable access to doctors and medication. Sharabati provides medical offices and pharmacy services, paying health insurance and subsidising a private scheme, while Karachi-based Naveena Denim Mills (NDM) has teamed up with outside agencies to provide workshops on physical and mental health. “These initiatives underscore our holistic approach to supporting the health and welfare of our workforce,” says Aydan Tuzun, senior vice-president of sales at NDM. NDM aligns its strategies with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, including number four, Quality Education. It has funded four of The Citizens Foundation schools since 2004, benefiting around 2,000 students, providing the schools with classrooms, libraries, science labs and recreational areas. The Employee with Purpose programme encourages staff to drive change in their communities. This year, the focus has been on SDG 13 and 14: Climate Action and Life Below Water, with the mill partnering on workshops for schools and children’s groups. It also supports The Kiran Foundation, which provides aid in marginalised communities, and the FESF Deaf Reach Programme, which supports deaf children through education.

DENIM IN-DEPTH

Empowerment through fashion

It also invites students and schoolchildren into the mill, to help them learn about the wide range of jobs on offer, particularly on the technical side, as part of a national scheme. “This helps them to understand there are other types of professions, especially industrial, that are in high demand,” says marketing manager Cristina Cerdeira Casal.

30 INSIDE DENIM

Charity focus The José y Ana Royo Foundation provides aid to employees’ families – for instance, help with school supplies and student loans – as well as donating to charity. To coincide with the launch of its DRY Indigo technology (which uses a foam dyeing process with virtually no water), the company established One Million Litres, representing the water saved in a year of using the process, and donated the economic equivalent to UNICEF's sanitation programmes. In the second year, the public voted on a beneficiary: more than 1,500 children now have access to drinking water at Chakaka Primary School in Malawi. “It’s important for companies to have a direct impact on their communities, whether it's social, educational or charitable work,” explains company director Jose Royo. “At Tejidos Royo we have followed in the path of our ancestors, who always kept in mind the village in which they grew up and its people. The José and Ana Royo Foundation is a living example of this, as it continues to benefit many people today.”

Charitable work is a cornerstone of Pakistan-based Siddiqsons through its support of the Aziz Rafi Trust, a foundation dedicated to community development.

Through the platform, it has donated to schools and colleges, provided fresh drinking water via boring and hand pumps in villages across Sindh, supported employees’ children with scholarships and donated to The Health Foundation (Pakistan) and Aasra Society. To empower women, Siddiqsons recently set up a Girls’ IT Centre at its factory in Hub, Balochistan province, to equip young women with IT skills, opening up career opportunities. It also teamed up with local girls’ colleges for the creation of a garment stitching centre. “By investing in the education and training of women, we aim to foster gender equality and create a more inclusive workforce,” says Asim Siddiqui, head of creative at Siddiqsons.

Brazil’s Vicunha provides training for young people in socially vulnerable situations in the states of Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte. Since 2004, around 440 young people have undertaken training and had the opportunity to join an internship programme.

Students have access to benefits such as medical care, life insurance, and company-provided meals and uniforms. The company also supports social initiatives by supplying fabric and know-how through its fabric bank, V.Tex, with a view that learning design and garment-making can empower young people. Projects that have benefitted include: The Mulheres do Brasil (Brazilian Women) initiative, which seeks to train socially vulnerable young women through sewing classes; InMod Cria Costura, a São Paulo Fashion Week initiative that trains young women on sewing and the garment production process and organises visits to Vicunha’s showroom; PanoSocial, a social company that makes sustainable textile products and helps people with prior justice system involvement into the job market; and Casa de Criadores, an event dedicated to Brazilian fashion (pictured).

PHOTO: VICUNHA

Cotton as a conduit This is also a focus for Artistic Fabric Mills (AFM), a women-led business that seeks to empower women through various schemes, including working alongside cotton-cultivating communities to set up schemes for regenerative and organic cotton. The company this summer received Regenagri certification for a farming project it is supporting in the Barkhan region of Balochistan, with women taking on leadership positions. “By challenging traditional gender norms, we are fostering a community that values gender equality and promotes sustainable agriculture practices, enabling women to connect with all shareholders from the cotton industry, share knowledge and build support networks within the textile sector,” explains Asma Omar, CSR strategy manager at AFM. Similarly, AGI Denim launched its own Regenerative Cotton Farm Project, and teamed up with the Rural Education and Economic Development Society (REEDS) to support 1,300 cotton farmers in adopting regenerative agriculture principles and practices.

The company is focused on achieving gender balance across managerial positions by 2030, as per UN SDG 5. Its factories include childcare facilities, free transport for women workers and accessible workspaces and provides healthcare access and training programmes. It funds two schools, which, in 2023, enabled 376 children to access quality education, and helped set up a medical clinic that has provided care to more than 90,000 people.

Mills operating in water-stressed areas also view investing in water as part of their remit as responsible businesses. Artistic Milliners’ Water Stewardship (AWS) Project in Karachi and Rahim Yar Khan aims to replenish freshwater sources around the Landhi and Korangi industrial area, providing clean water to improve health and living conditions. Part of the strategy involves working with local communities to reuse water for horticulture, treat wastewater with nature-based solutions and restore freshwater through urban plantation. “Investing in workers and the community is crucial as it drives sustainability, fosters innovation and ensures long-term success,” says Saqib Sohail, manager of responsible business projects at Artistic Milliners. “By enhancing well-being across the board and building strong community partnerships, AM not only improves the lives of its employees and local residents but also secures a sustainable and prosperous future for the company.”

The vertical manufacturer also supports a school in Gharo, financing salaries and various school events.

These are just some of the multitude of stories of how employees provide the backbone of the business, and the business becomes the heartbeat, investing in them in return. On International Charity Day at the start of September, Siddiqsons summed up the notion: “Charity begins with a single act of kindness. Together, we can continue to make a difference and uplift those in need. Let’s keep giving and supporting, today and every day.”

Artistic Milliners’ training sessions include financial literacy and support for women (pictured), disability sensitisation, sign language training and adult literacy classes.

PHOTO: ARTISTIC MILLINERS

Italy Candiani offers free flu vaccines to all employees, and an on-site doctor once a week. The mill offers scholarships to students enrolled in textile and chemical trade schools. “By investing in the next generation of talent, we aim to ensure the continuity of expertise and innovation in our industry while creating opportunities for young individuals,” it says.

property in Hub to the Aga Khan University Hospital. This 2,000 sq. ft space has been used for diagnostics and treatment, offering support to the community unable to travel to Karachi for diagnoses.

India KG Group funds several schools, including the KG College of Arts, Science, Engineering and Management.

More than half of the 16,000 employees are from rural areas and 70% are women.

KG helped to build classrooms, close to the factories, and funds rural health clinics, providing free healthcare and services.

Bangladesh Jeans-maker Fashion Forum has built a mosque for workers, named after the late mother of its CEO. The upper floor of the Zebun Nessa Mosque in Dhaka is dedicated to female workers as a prayer and meeting area. Enclosed gardens provide a peaceful retreat from the bustling industrial environment.

Cambodia Australian brand Outland Denim’s garment manufacturer supports women escaping from modern slavery, exploitation or vulnerability, enabling them to provide for themselves and their families and find a safe and supported route into work. The team receives onsite healthcare as well as educational and vocational training.

31 ISSUE 14 / 2024

Pakistan Siddiqsons donated a

CLOCKING ON...

CLOCKING ON...

With a schedule that means he’s often on the road, Paolo Gnutti appreciates a day to visit local laundries, ISKO’s northern Italian Creative Room and spend quality time with loved ones.

Home is where the heart is Paolo Gnutti has more than 35 years of experience in denim fabric creation, with deep knowledge of the product ranging from yarn, dyeing, weaving and finishing to the production of the finished garment. His vision is to create accessible luxury denim fabric, producing uniquely colourful, rich and fun collections through his collaborations with ISKO. PHOTOS: PAOLO GNUTTI

I would like to clarify that this is one of the rare days I get to spend at home in Bassano Del Grappa. Most of my time is dedicated to travelling to collaborate with clients around the world, conducting research and visiting the parent company ISKO in Turkey. In addition to being the creative director of my luxury denim fabric line, I am also a father of four children: Mariasole (24), Gianmarco (22), Giampaolo (20), and Emmablue (12), as well as our beloved Achille, a four-year-old mixed breed who resembles an Australian Shepherd.

5.30am I always wake up very early, so I have time to turn on the TV to the news channels, read the newspapers and respond to emails. This is a moment I dedicate to staying informed in the silence of my living room, before the whole family wakes up.

7.00am Around this time, my family wakes up, and I enjoy making breakfast for everyone. Another one of my great passions is cooking, and it brings me immense satisfaction to do it for the people I love. We sit together, and the day begins with a beautiful and chaotic hustle that I cherish, as it doesn’t happen often for us to be together.

8.30am I leave the house and use the first part of my day to visit clients in my area and go to laundries to discuss new trends and innovations. Once the visits are done, I head to Castelfranco Veneto, to ISKO’s Creative Room, where I have an office and where most of my work takes place on the computer and among my collections. Here, I plan new trips, check in with the staff about the progress of the new collections, and participate in various meetings and calls. Typically, my colleagues and I have lunch together at a local trattoria.

5.30pm After work, I meet my longtime friends for a game of padel, a sport I really enjoy. It helps me stay fit and allows me to spend time with friends I don’t see (unfortunately) often.

8.00pm

32 INSIDE DENIM

After a workday, I return home, and we gather for dinner.

I try to have all the kids with me and my wife, Rossella, and most of the time we succeed. It’s wonderful to end the day sharing what we have done. Being six at the table, there’s never a dull moment.

11.00pm Since I wake up early in the morning, I start to feel tired quite soon. Usually, by this time, I find myself already in the arms of Morpheus.

MAGAZINES ISSUE 14: 2024

BEHIND THE SEAMS OF THE GLOBAL DENIM INDUSTRY

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ESTABLISHED 1987

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Leather makes products for life Suede and the retro revival Micro-tanneries on farms Fifty years of the VW Golf

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Knock-on wood benefits Smart­tag info woven in New glue breakthrough Andy Dong on polypro’s pluses

The craft of Cordovan Spray-on uppers Early AI successes Soles with the grip of a gecko

Preparing for digital IDs / Reuse v recycle / Simon Guiliani Nature underpins stretch / Trendsetting shifts camps

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