A new partnership with sustainable fiber brand CiCLO will bring Dovetail Workwear “a big step closer to becoming fully ‘dirt to dirt,’” it said Tuesday.
The women’s workwear brand will debut its first garment made with CiCLO fibers, its new Shop Pant, Wednesday. The product weaves CiCLO nylon fibers, which eventually biodegrade in the right conditions, into cotton, creating a durable and long-lasting garment designed to reduce synthetic microfiber pollution, Dovetail said.
“Providing a true dirt-to-dirt experience, the inaugural run of our durable Shop Pant is a testament to our efforts to push the boundaries for women’s workwear– from the first step of product development to the final days after the life cycle of the garment,” Sara DeLuca, Dovetail co-founder and director of product development, said in a statement. “The CiCLO fibers and cotton construction break down like natural materials do in environments where microfibers are prolific pollutants—including sea, water, and soil—and minimize accumulation in landfills.”
The garment, available in “vintage stripe” and olive green for $109, features a higher waist design with 10 pockets and a panel-free leg face. The durability and added strength of CiCLO-infused nylon in the warp yarns eliminated the need for panels and rivets, reducing the risk to mechanics and makers of scratches and dings, Dovetail said. CiCLO is non-toxic to marine life, fully traceable and ECO Passport Certified, it added.
According to Andrea Ferris, CiCLO’s co-founder and co-inventor, when the fiber leaks into the environment during manufacture, use and care, it behaves more like natural fibers, such as wool, than traditional synthetics. “As a result, we leave less waste behind on our journey to create the best products and a more healthy, happy planet,” she said in a statement.
CiCLO is a product of Intrinsic Advanced Materials, a joint venture formed in 2018 between Intrinsic Textiles Group and Parkdale Advanced Materials. The technology is added to virgin or recycled polyester when the plastic pellets are melted to make fibers and yarn, at which point it embeds in the plastic. When CiCLO-treated fibers eventually end up in landfills, soil or water, microbes are attracted to the material and can digest it similarly to naturally biodegradable materials. According to CiCLO, long-term studies have shown its fibers to decompose at rates comparable to wool.