Denim Special Edition
Visit Carved in Blue, a blog produced and curated by the denim team at Lenzing.
© Jeanologia
What we saw: Highlights from the show floor
The Lenzing Denim Team has seen it all – literally. The team traveled from Amsterdam to New York back to Barcelona to discover the latest innovations and themes denim has to offer. From new yarn blends using TENCEL® and Lenzing Modal® to creative marketing concepts, here are the highlights you need to know for the Autumn/Winter 2017-18 denim season including: Clean Act, Secret Science, and Storytelling.
Is cooperation the key to creating sustainable denim?
They say teamwork makes the dream work, and the industry leaders behind Rational Denim are hoping their collaborative project around responsibly produced denim will help pave a path for others to follow. Archroma, Garmon, Lenzing and Royo – each an expert in its respective area of the supply chain – all share the same belief that denim garments can be made in a more responsible way with the “Roadmap to Rational Denim”.
Toray on denim’s crossover appeal in the premium market
Clean, bright and contemporary, at first glance Toray denim has a distinct look not normally associated with Japanese denim, however the mill has masterfully combined the country’s denim heritage and passion with innovation and performance that speak to a premium customer. With a client roster that spans J Brand and AG in the U.S. to Diesel and Hugo Boss in Europe, Yoshiki Yamada, manager of the mill’s stretch materials and fibers department, explained how developing fabrications from the yarn stage has helped elevate Toray to the point where it is setting new standards in the high end market. “We can tell different stories. The premium category demands more specialized fabric,” he said. Fibers like TENCEL® and Lenzing Modal® have opened the door for more possibilities, Yamada added.
© Isabelle Duverger for FIT
Fit students present for the 2016 denim project
Though jeans are America’s casualwear, putting together a denim collection is no easy feat. On May 12th, Fashion Institute of Technology students in the Textile Development and Marketing (TDM) Department presented collections they had put together for the Denim Project, a capstone course for the program. Over the course of 13 weeks, teams of students complete tasks like developing consumer profiles and putting together packaging and social media strategies, as well as developing fabrics and commercially viable factory prototypes. The students were advised by 32 industry professionals, including employees from Olah Inc., Lenzing Fibers, Rag and Bone, Google, Cone Denim, Nexgen, Supima, Invista, and Stoll, among others.
© Santanderina
Denim yesterday, today and tomorrow
The first pair of jeans Juan Pares owned was Levi’s Red Tab five-pockets and he loved them beyond measure. It was 1975 and, at that time, owning a pair of Levi’s in Spain, where the Textile Santanderina chairman and CEO grew up, was amazing. At its Cantabria, Spain facility, Santanderina makes products ranging from cotton classics to the latest innovations using technical fibers like TENCEL®. “Santanderina was the first company in the world to use this fiber,” Pares said. The company continued to perfect its use of TENCEL® over the years, finding it adaptable for blends with other fibers and appreciating the resulting quality of the product. “For us, TENCEL® is our key product in this moment, and when we think of the future, we think of TENCEL®. Everything goes together,” he said.