Swedish denim label Nudie Jeans has been one key denim brand to introduce recycled and organic jeans to the mass market. The other key brands for sustainable denim for men in 2013 are Nobel Denim, Apolis Global, Nonetheless Garments, and Huit.
An initiative of G-Star is of its Lexicon denim available in brand’s S/S 2013 denim collection. Styles in Lexicon Denim DK Aged fabric are made using innovative dyeing and finishing processes that generate a big reduction in water (up to 95%), energy and chemical usage in comparison to conventional processes. In addition, these denims are dried in the air with a rotating system that is able to dry 40,000 jeans in 25 minutes, instead of using conventional dryers.
Deisel+Edun, its 25-piece capsule collection of sustainable denim, manufactured in Africa is made from Conservative Cotton Initiative (CCI) cotton from Uganda and completely eco-friendly. Diesel’s founder, Renzi Rosso, claims, “With this project we want to show to consumers and to industry alike, that it is indeed possible to source, produce and generate sustainable trade in Africa”.
Levis recently introduced its waste less Spring 2013 collection, a new denim line incorporating 20 per cent post-consumer recycled content in the form of eight 12 to 20-ounce plastic soda bottles per jean. Made from brown beer bottles, Green soda bottles, clear water bottles, and black food trays, collected from municipal recycling programs across the country. The polyester fibre achieved from these bottles is blended with cotton fibre, which is then woven with traditional cotton yarn to create Waste Less jeans and the iconic Levi’s Trucker jackets.
Collaborating with designers Wister Tsang and Gong Jiaqi, even Esprit launched its 2013 Recycled Collection this summer in Asia. Created by recycling its own manufacturing fabric “off cuts” into recycled fabric, so as to reduce textile waste, save water and carbon emissions and to promote a more sustainable lifestyle.
