One of Brazil’s largest textile producers, Vicunha Textil, has released the first details regarding a new collaboration for Spring/Summer 2020 with the “Godfather of Denim,” Adriano Goldschmied. They’ve dubbed the collection “Absolut Eco.”
Calling Goldschmied “a loyal partner,” Vicunha developed Absolut Eco with sustainability in mind. The entire collection was created using pre-consumer denim fabric that is shredded and recombined to create a new textile that goes without the need for resource-intensive dyeing and washing.
Vicunha says producing the Absolut Eco collection with pre-consumer recycled fabric reduces the water consumption of the collection by 95 percent and also removes 90 percent of the chemicals used in a typical production cycle. The pieces require little to no washing owed to being composed of pre-consumer fabric that has already been treated. Absolut Eco relies on the “special character” of the original fabric to provide the collection with its light indigo coloring and the authentic denim look and feel consumers expect, Vicunha noted.
Goldschmied’s collaboration with Vicunha will be composed of two denim textiles, Pine at 11 ounces and Morus at 11.3 oz, and will also incorporate agar, a cotton-elastane substance that will give the collection’s denim its stretch.
With producing more than 20 million meters of fabric every month, sustainability has become a vital part of carrying the business into the future, Vicunha said. In working toward that goal, Vicunha has simultaneously released details for a plan called “Vicunha Pegada Hídrica,” which roughly translates as Vicunha’s “footprint.”
The program will promote supply chain transparency and work to create a system of understanding that will de-silo its production operations. In doing so, Vicunha hopes to create a set of indicators that will be able to provide meaningful sustainability benchmarks for each department and for the organization as a whole.
If implemented successfully, Vicunha Pegada Hídrica would precisely calculate water consumption, starting at the planting of the first cotton seed and ending once the lifecycle of a pair of jeans has completed. It will also use this new information for future water conservation efforts.
The aim, Vicunha said, is to “demystify, sensitize and educate” on sustainability issues throughout supply chains.
“The responsible use of resources has always been extremely important to Vicunha. With this project, we are developing a new specific instrument with practical follow-up measures to improve the use of natural resources, in particular water. This also includes defining goals to increase efficiency in these environmental efforts and to continuously improve the results,” Marcel Imaizumi, production director of Vicunha Textil said.
Vicunha has partnered with three organizations for the new program including Ecoera, an organization devoted to the integration of sustainability and fashion, H20 Company, a water-conservation specialist and Iniciativa Verde, a non-profit that works to improve environmental preservation in Brazil and abroad.