Green Credentials: Denim Laundry | Energy | Recycling

LAUNDRY

The traditional laundry process involves hand sanding, grinding, ripping to re-create an aged appearance finished off with stone or enzyme washing several times in a giant industrial washing machine with or without bleach to determine the eventual shade of indigo.

Pumice stones of varying sizes are used in the washing machine to create a worn in appearance. Instead of pumice stones we also use enzymes which are a liquidised pumice stone.  

Composite Image ©TheDenimEye

The above images demonstrate the stone washing process in a modern commercial laundry. The laundry is a significant part of the jeans making process. 

Stones and chemicals are heavily used to create the vintage and used washes we love so much but they do create a large amount of waste sludge that has to be dealt with in the waste system..

Laser finishing

Laser finishing is a fast growing alternative to the hand degrading process.

Composite Image ©TheDenimEye

©Jeanologia

Laser equipment can replicate such effects but the denim purists can easily tell the difference, preferring the hand and stoned effects.  But this process is improving all the time.  Currently Jeanologia in Spain make one of the best machines for such processes.

Sand blasting whilst good at the time was outlawed some years ago as being dangerous.

Acid wash was likewise outlawed fairly soon after it became the hottest fashion jeans finish due to the fact the dry bleached stones caused skin burns and blindness in the operatives.

Energy

Composite Image ©TheDenimEye

Alternative sources of energy are now used to reduce what is an energy heavy industry – Solar Power; Wind energy; Water energy.

Recycle / Upcycle

Recycling

Composite Image ©TheDenimEye

Waste management is essential in a well run denim Mill. After the spinning process all waste cotton is swept from the floor, cleaned and re-used by blending with longer fibre cotton. Garnetting equipment enables old cotton garments to be chopped up and re-spun blending with longer fibres for strength.

Upcycling for fashion.

Composite Image ©TheDenimEye, ©RialtoJeanProject

Re-use old pieces of denim and cut up garments to make new items. This is more a handcraft based creative approach where each piece is unique. Whilst it is not a huge commercial operation for the high street it is a growing force in the jeans industry where most dedicated jeaners love the individual revival attitude.

Upcycling for the home

©Nudie Jeans

The Blue Jeans Go Green programme which is a trademark of Cotton Inc. repurposes old denim garments into Ultra Touch Denim Insulation.  Apparently, it takes around 500-1000 pairs of jeans to insulate an average sized western home. 

On a more handcraft level creative indigo rugs and accessories such as containers and organisers have reached an almost commercial level of “unique” pieces. Being sold in creative high street stores.

Trend Alert: Green Credentials

Can the fashion industry really be sustainable? 

Did you know that the fashion industry is the 2nd most polluting  industry in the World? Denim itself is a huge contributor to this shocking statistic, being a really filthy business!

Cotton, water and chemicals are the main culprits. The manufacture of textile fibres uses 1 trillion gallons of water per annum with denim production using dangerous chemicals to grow cotton and creating  millions of gallons of wastewater in the dyeing and make process of both denim and jeans. The denim industry uses a lot of water but manufactures products in places that don’t have enough water! Places such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mexico where the droughts are notorious.

Why are countries without much water making denim and jeans?

The brands and retailers know there is limited water where their jeans are made but they seem not to care because the price of the jean forces them to manufacture in countries with low labour costs regardless of the water supply.

We are told that the consumers demand everything to be done as cheaply as possible whereas it is the retailers who wish to make things cheaper and ever cheaper to capture a higher margin for themselves whilst retaining or increasing their market share by advertising ever low cost jeans.  This encourages the consumer to buy more and dispose of more.

I wonder what would happen if the consumer had an informed choice of the global sourcing strategy of many top jeans brands?

So what of sustainability ?   

Whilst many denim brands are dipping their toes into the concepts of sustainability not many are really making a conscious effort to achieve this.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Later in this month’s analysis of we highlight some of the brands who ARE doing their bit to help the environment, setting aside millions of $ to redress these issues and further applaud those that have built sustainability into their manufacturing strategy from the outset.

But before that let's take a look at where the issues lie, and the improvements that are being made. 

Fibres

Cotton

©Composite Image ©TheDenimEye

It all starts with Cotton. Denim is made primarily from cotton. Although modern denims contain a number of other fibres for fashion for the purpose of this argument we will concentrate on COTTON.    Cotton is a contaminating dirty crop, just 2.4% of the World's cultivated land is planted with cotton yet it accounts for 24% of the Worlds insecticide market and 11% of global sales of pesticides.  It is therefore the most intensive pesticide crop on the planet.

There are different types of cotton available for the fashion industry to use.

ORGANIC cotton is grown with NO PESTICIDES but the output is very small, it is about 1/3 of normal cotton. Such that if it were to reach the output of non organic we would be taking the land from food production.

©Composite Image ©TheDenimEye

FAIRTRADE cotton means that all farmers are guaranteed a living wage for what they grow and sell.

©Composite Image ©TheDenimEye

BCI cotton - This stands for BETTER COTTON INITIATIVE -  where the smaller farmers are trained to grow and harvest their crops in an environmentally friendly way by following certain guidelines:

Use just the right amount of fertilisers

Use just the right amount of water for irrigation

Manage the planting such that water does not pool” around the roots.

Control the use of pesticides.

 OTHER FIBRES the sustainable ones!

©Composite Image ©TheDenimEye

1.     Tencel.  Is a cellulosic fibre originating from tree bark.  It is a “greener” fibre than cotton or many other common textile fibres.  It is grown in a sustaible manner - no pesticides are required to grow the trees.  An organic solvent is used to dissolve the wood chips into a solution. The chemical used to dissolve these chips is very expensive so it is recycled after the process is complete.

2.     Polyester.  Although the fibre itself is not bio degradable if denim was made from 100% polyester this would eliminate all the currently bad elements of the current denim making process..  The fact that it is not biodegradable makes it a tricky fibre for blending.

WATER

©Blue Planet

It takes around 1,800 gallons of water to grow enough cotton to produce just one pair of regular blue jeans.  “That's more water than it takes to make a ton of cement or a barrel of beer”

In the manufacture of Denim Jeans it takes approximately a whopping 9000 litres of water to make one pair of blue jeans.  Within a denim plant all waste water is recycled or returned to its source which is usually a river in close proximity or used to irrigate the land.  But this water whilst being clean is not always drinkable. 

Ways of reducing water consumption.

Using Ozone finishing Equipment will save 12 litres of water per denim jean.

Removing the de-size process step = saving of 5.9 litres per jean.

Foam dyeingrather than rope or slasher dyeing in one generic dye bath can save up to 5.7 litres of water.

Recycling water used in the denim processes.

Composite Image ©TheDenimEye

The above images depict the original primitive method of reclaiming the used dyestuff for further use on the left with a modern water treatment plant on the right.

All denim manufacturers must by law recycle their waste water.

Water is taken from the river ( denim plants are built next to a natural water source) used for dyeing, finishing, washing in the make process of the denim fabric. After which the used water passes through a purpose built treatment plant ( above) and either re-used again and again or returned to the water source.  

 INDIGO DYEING

Composite Image ©TheDenimEye

Denim production not only uses dangerous chemicals to grow conventional cotton it creates millions of gallons of waste water in the dyeing process. 

More harmful chemicals are used to adhere the dyestuff to the cotton. These are eventually washed away into the treatment plant where the water is recycled for the process to start again if the plant is a good one.  Otherwise the waste water is returned back to nature.

Indigo dye is expensive therefore recycling is an advantage.  To recycle the indigo dye sludge we use an Ultra Filtration process to extract the dye to re-use.

Today, less than 20% of the World's denim Mills use "pre-reduced " indigo dye which is a more sustainable dyestuff. The rest use powdered indigo which creates more sludge and slurry in the waste water. Whilst Japanese denim continues to be the most sought after in the world barely a single mill in Japan uses pre-reduced indigo. They still use powdered dyestuff. This seems not to deter the brands or the consumer who regard Japanese denim as the ultimate. Some Japanese Mills however use natural indigo which is much preferable to any chemically produced dye but it is limited in supply, hard to grow everywhere and difficult to handle, washing off extremely quickly making our favoured dark indigo shades hard to retain.

©Indigo The Colour that Changed the World, Catherine Legrand

The above images show what was the old primitive hand dye method from China and India with multiple dye baths to create the desired shade. the bottom right image shows a modern plant where the yarn has been mechanically dyed in "rope" form in huge bulk.

Forever White

Pure head to toe white - a look that many find hard to pull off. But in jeanswear it is fresh and less demanding of pristine purity. The textured nature of denim creates shadows, character and a certain relaxed imperfection.  

L-R: ©Ports 1961 ©Proenza Schouler

Fashion shapes in white denim outlined with black stitching.  Just a touch of black to highlight or matt chrome for accessories.  White alone is pure and sculptural demanding perfection of shape. It is crisply tailored or softly moulded.  In this case it is a positive "colour"with an architectural shape albeit being colourless white.

L-R: ©Wanda Nylon ©Chloe

Brand Spotlight: J Brand

JBrand jeans have one of the best collections of black denims for both genders.  Mostly in stretch and high stretch for super shaping with ankle skimming or kick flares for length interest.  Fitted and formed black denims are back.

Black//White

Mods influence and retro black and white. Chanel bold details look super modern. Retro black and white stripes could be 50's or 2000's. It is an enduring look which today is translated in white denim and jersey.

©Balmain

Street sport from the real Adidas stripes to its influence on black and white jeanswear.   Slick contemporary sporty statements which are only successfully translated through gender neutral black and white denim and jeans.  

Bleached and Lasered

White can also start black!  In denim we can make anything happen.

Black denim, pigment coated white followed by a heavy scrape to reveal the black inside. Scraping simply as a worn effect or crackled to create a pattern. The laundry is the place for artistry be it by traditional drum tumbling or laser creation.

Bleached out white coveralls started life as a utility garment which has  morphed into daily fashion. In this case for a guy but it is a look which is totally gender neutral.  We wore denim overalls, now boiler suits, in the 60's which resembled old flying jackets. We do so again today. Worker and painter coveralls are likewise on trend for both genders.

©Denim Style

Biker Blacks

Be they grunge or be they clean black, denims are serious.  Worn out states "I'm a tough guy, don't mess with me".  Clean combines with chrome to say the same in a more studied fashion way. They all demand you to "look at me".  Black leather, black denim chrome buckles, belts and bikes - the look endures today and when it is not fashion it is off duty with attitude.

©The black Leather Jacket

Black leather and jeans is a look which endures today.   Born in the era of Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley, James Dean it's smoky, smouldering, sexy.  

©Denim From Cowboys to Catwalks

A clean paired down black black fashion look which retains overtones of a tough sexiness.  A "go to" look when blue jeans are just too worn out.  

Black denim shorts and dresses can also be lighthearted, not pretty but quirky and gamine.  More serious than a pretty floral dress for the occasion.

Trend Alert: Forever Black, Forever White

Monochromatic jeans-wear exhibits drama with chic style. A counterpoint to "the Blues". Black and white both together and independently as white on white and black on black are a strong statement. This is the tough yet soft denim twill we love catapulted into urban fashion. No need to be in a classic 5 pocket, any style both stretch and rigid works for us. Neither colour has the wash down charm of indigo denim but with new technology we can fake the degradation creating a non colour worn out attitude. Both black and white however, are best used clean as pure bleached white or dense clear black black.

A soupçon of stretch aids comfort and more elasticity creates super fit and form just as with the blues. They both demonstrate subtle character, drinking in the warp slubs to create a natural surface texture. Black denim and white denim have serious attitude - neither is basic. Think back to "On The Waterfront" and "Blade Runner" where we think black and the black and white movies that were visually so compelling. 

L: ©Nicholas K C: © The Black Leather Jacket

Black black is a term for both the denim and the head to toe look.  The denim is black warp with black weft or black over dyed black.  Creating a look that is fathom deep and dense. Whichever way it is achieved the look must be a clean clear black without a hint of a tint. Just bright and clear. And of course it must work seamlessly with other blacks - black leather, silk, suede, wool and more.

L: ©Wanda Nylon R: © Interior View 7

Black and white used together for super graphic drama.

Imagine in denim - Wow!

Black and white always looks modern whichever colour is dominant. Remember Marimeko whose prints still look amazing today. Black and white being devoid of all colour demands you see the form and shape more clearly.

L-R: © Julian David, ©Diesel Black Gold, ©Messagerie

Why do we want to wear black denim jeans to an "occasion" instead of smart black ordinary pants?  Because they are more than ordinary.  They have attitude - with a rolled cuff, a prominent side seam, a perfect 5 pocketed fit and a super leg shape, all due to the inherent qualities of denim.  Why wouldn't you?