Denim moves
Other eco-highlights at Texworld came from the denim sector where US Denim Mills was making a big splash about its latest 100% recycled denim offer. Syed Adeel Haider from the Pakistan-based company said, “Recycled denim is set to become big business for us – the interest from retailers is growing all the time. The biggest challenge though is going to be securing enough recycled raw materials going forward. At the moment, we use fabrics rescued from the cutting room floor of local factories, but with cotton being so scarce at the moment, even these are hard to come by.”
The company is a supplier to Marks & Spencer and notes that its range of Fairtrade denim is growing rapidly. “We produce around one quarter to half a million metres of Fairtrade fabric at the moment and see this area of our business growing fast.” The company has also revealed that is has set up a strategic relationship with a brand on the west coast of the USA to supply sustainable denim.
US Denim Mills also has a new collection based on Lenzing’s Tencel fibre which is being billed as environmentally responsible denim. In fact, at Texworld more and more buyers’ said they were looking at fibre substitution for cotton and that Tencel is the obvious replacement. “Perhaps with cotton in the warp and Tencel in the weft,” one buyer told us, “but at the moment capacities for Tencel are sold out and hard to come by.”
