During the last edition of Denim Premiere Vision held in Berlin on 17 and 18 May, the show has organized the talk “Emphasize Hemp!”, a discussion involving companies that have collaborated together at a new Tom Tailor jeans capsule made with hemp. They underlined how hemp can be a solution and it can help building up new strategic collaborations.
The participants were: Rashid Iqbal, executive director, Naveena Denim Limited (NDL); Christina Agtzidou, design manager denim, and Juliane Nowakowski, head of sustainability and corporate responsibility, Tom Tailor; Denis Druon, president and CEO, The Flax Company/Marmara Hemp, and Michael Kininmonth, business development project management, Lenzing. Moderating the talk was Maria Cristina Pavarini, The SPIN OFF/Textil Wirtschaft. TSO has selected some of the key statements from the event.
Rashid Iqbal, NDL:
“Christina Agtzidou from Tom Tailor wanted to launch a new collection using soft hand hemp. As she was very demanding and brought a long list of requests, I decided it was time I involved different partners in this project. In the end Agtzidou managed to offer two small capsule collections made with very versatile denims in two shades of grey.”
Christina Agtzidou, Tom Tailor:
“Tom Tailor has already been offering various sustainable products made with organic cotton and BCI cotton since long. As we are aware that there are many issues related to cotton right now, we wanted to find some alternative materials and see what else we could do, like, for instance, creating some new ‘super fabric’ that contains a blend or fibers that are sustainable and have a lower footprint.”
“Our new collection will be in stores in August and at an average price of €59.99. It will be made with two fabrics we created together - one is a more commercial blend of BCI cotton, hemp and Lycra, and the other one is a blend including Tencel. It is a little heavier, but with a much more authentic look and aimed at more fashionable customers, but all prices are very average and easy to be paid for different consumer types.”
Juliane Nowakowski, Tom Tailor:
“Our goal is to bring innovation to new standards because a few years ago using organic cotton was an innovation, but now it’s like the new standard. For us, the hemp topic should be the same thing, and we should integrate hemp into more and more different fabrics and more different products.”
“Everybody is speaking of hemp. Despite hemp is a natural fiber, there are different types of hemp and there are some hemp qualities that are more sustainable than others. Our hemp, the Marmara hemp, for instance, is a hemp that is only mechanically treated, therefore, it is extremely sustainable.”
“We only offer fibers with a certification. Our hemp fiber has gained the Sustainability Certification and also the Cradle to Cradle Platinum Certification. We are the only company that offers this fiber with the full LCA certification and when we saw the results with our fiber we saw we are carbon negative, which is great news. Though, you an achieve this recognisement only when it is mechanically treated.”
Michael Kininmonth, Lenzing:
“In the past we worked with different bast fibers, linen, bamboo and other fibers. During the Covid times we had also collaborated with NDL at a project we call Bast Recast and NDL supplied seven different fabrics in indigo, ecru variants and made with different fibers like Tencel and modal. We at Lenzing also worked on many projects, including a new denim project where we used a blend of wood pulp and hemp pulp. So I think that hemp is going very strong at the moment.”
Rashid Iqbal:
“Collaborating together was very important in this project. We had many discussions and also included our partner Jeanologia as these are waterless products, but also all decide together about colors, blends and finding the right fiber mix.”
Christina Agtzidou:
“Our goal is to integrate these super great comfy fabrics in our “never-out-of-stock” program, to have it as a real basis in our product offer. This fabric is really nice, for the way it looks and feel. As it is sustainable, why shouldn’t we continue using it?”
“It’s important how you create a fabric. We didn’t simply pick a fabric from a mill, but we sat down and thought together how we could improve some fixed standard. That’s why we will continue doing such projects and, as sustainability is moving superfast, we should keep improving our projects, the fabrics we use, and we should learn how to make new fabrics.”
Denis Druon:
“We are just at the beginning of a story. When I saw the hemp fiber we were going to produce three years back, it was very coarse. In the meantime, we improved the fiber so much, and we know that it will get better in the coming years.”
“You take a super sustainable fiber as hemp that requires no irrigation, no pesticides, nothing more sustainable than the fiber which we are using, but you don’t use it like this. Basically you can use 20% hemp, and blend it with other fibers. That’s how you just make a magic fabric out of the coarse fiber, which can only be done thanks to the collaboration we have with spinners.”
Michael Kininmont:
“The population on earth will be about eight billion soon, and they will need more food, and will need to buy more things. So eventually the dominance of polyester and cotton is not going to fulfill the textile needs, so hemp could help fill that gap.
“I think there is a long way to go before the industry understands it. I think that collaborations with spinners and weavers will play a significant role.”
Rashid Iqbal:
“People are going towards natural fibers. Durable denim is something we are going to focus on, and hemp is a natural fiber that can play this role.”
Christina Agtzidou:
“The future is with natural fibers, with hemp and all the alternatives, but also with recycled fibers, as this way they can recreate from the existing.”
“What refers to sustainable fibers as bast fibers, I think we still have to educate the end consumer. If we want to have a future, we simply have to explain it to the people out there.”
“It needs to be pushed from all sides so the people that recognize will slowly move away from all the fibers that are harmful and may create higher impact on earth.”
Denis Druon:
“We produce hemp, flax, cottonised flax and have just launched the first GRS certified cottonised linen fiber. Natural fibers are one of the solutions. Probably they are a little more expensive, but we have to make denim more durable, so we can afford to pay for natural fibers.”
“Hemp or flax will never be as cheap as cotton or as the synthetic fibers because we have to also pay the farmers, but sustainability has a cost and the customers have to know it.”
“I don’t know if this is an urban myth, but I’m sure I read somewhere that the first denim was made of hemp.”
“This year Tencel is celebrating its 30th anniversary and finally Tencel is cheaper than cotton.”
“I think that the future for cellulosic fibers is strong. I think that cellulose is the most important natural polymer on earth. Mankind will utilize it in many ways for farming uses, for fuel and textiles. So I think it’s important we work together on collaborations. I think there is still a long road for hemp, but I think that the farmers have to work out what to do with it, but I think that in the future hemp is going to play a large part in the industry.”
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