Denim disruptor answers some questions, but not all

LOS ANGELES / BASEL - A biotech venture claiming to have solved one of fashion’s biggest environmental headaches – the water-hungry business of dyeing denim – has answered a fuller set of follow-up questions put to it by Ecotextile News, resolving some earlier ambiguities while leaving others unaddressed.

WTRLSS, a Los Angeles and Basel-based company formerly known as Lab Denim, launched publicly in August with the pitch of replacing the multi-stage, water-intensive indigo dyeing and finishing process with a single digital application step, cutting water use in dyeing and finishing “by up to 99.9%” and energy use by 90%.