Candiani: Biobased and biodegradable will be Denim 2.0
The Italian mill has been working with natural indigo and with chemicals company Archroma and its EarthColors range to produce fabrics that are dyed using natural colours and are biodegradable.
EarthColors are biomass-based dyes synthesized from the waste of herbal or agricultural industries, such as almond husks, rosemary leaves and beetroot peels.
“We love the idea of creating fully biobased and biodegradable stretch material. This will lead us to a whole different future, this is our vision,” said Mr Candiani. “Today it is very expensive to make those fabrics, especially if you want to go fully biobased and biodegradable. But I believe it is scalable, we have proven it already. And I believe in the next five to 10 years it will be a new generation of denim: Denim 2.0.”
Launched at the start of 2020, Candiani’s Coreva fabric is made with organic cotton wrapped around a natural rubber core resulting in a biodegradable stretch denim fabric without compromising elasticity. It can also be laundered and finished without any limitations.
The fabric per metre is about 40% more expensive than regular stretch denim, but Mr Candiani believes the cost will come down as efficiency increases.
“Efficiency makes you engineer things in a different way so they can be done in a competitive solution,” he said. “We still need to scale it up but the numbers will come and this will help us to make it more efficient and effective. In the near future, the extra cost factor can be compressed.”
In terms of recycling, recent tests have proved that separating the rubber from the cotton is relatively easy, he said. “At the end of the life cycle you should aim for the best and most efficient recycling, or biodegradability and compostability. You want to create regenerative products. Coreva represents a very tangible way to go circular.”
Coreva is used by brands including Stella McCartney, Hiut and Denham (pictured), and the patent took three years to achieve. Mr Candiani said there was a balance between protecting the intellectual property and sharing ideas around sustainability but that he was not averse to collaborations with like-minded companies.
He added that some companies have enquired about licensing the technology outside of denim. “This is something that I might explore, but not for the next two to three years.”
Alberto Candiani was speaking as part of the Denimsandjeans virtual trade show.
