Global leaders in the chemical industry for textiles are taking a first step to meet and collaborate on a set of practices that will serve the industry at large.
Lead by House of Denim, a non-profit foundation in Amsterdam, chemical manufacturers have been invited to discuss collaboration with the ultimate goal of including all players operating in textile chemistry to drive towards consistent and conscious chemistry throughout the denim supply chain and beyond.
“Amsterdam is home to some of the world’s leading jeans brands, but we are fully aware that to clean up this industry, we need to collaborate across borders and involve players from the various stages of denim: this is a complex global industry,” said James Veenhoff, House of Denim founder. “Although there’s a lot of hard work ahead, it’s exciting to see industry visionaries from as far apart as India, China, Europe and the Americas so unanimous in their support for this direction. We need our leaders to lead—and it appears that this is what is happening, starting from the world of chemistry.”
The debate and confusion surrounding the use of chemicals in denim manufacturing came to a head at Kingpins Transformers last October, where representatives from the supply chain squabbled about the best safe, sustainable and affordable practices.
“Public opinion and concerns over the environment and safety have done a solid job at ‘shocking’ big brands into action. But to be honest, the chemical side of things is so complex that no company or brand is able to influence things on their own,” said Transformers initiator Andrew Olah. “That’s why this collaboration is so essential for real change to happen.”
