Apparel Brands Drive Circular Fashion Future with Recyclable, Renewable Fabrics

Pangaia, Evrnu release world’s first Nucycl® jacket made entirely from textile waste

Image credit: Pangaia

Today, materials-science company Pangaia releases its latest innovation
through Pangaia Lab. Made from textile innovator Evrnu’s
NuCycl®, the ‘Renu’ jacket is Pangaia’s first
denim product made entirely from cotton textile waste — marking a pivotal
moment in the brand’s material innovation journey.

The Evrnu partnership is the latest in a
string of collaborations through which Pangaia has given textile waste new
life: In 2021, it released its Plnt Fiber™ and Frut
Fiber™ blends
— fleece-like fabrics derived from plant and agricultural waste — which have
the look and feel of cotton, without the cotton; and in 2022, its Reclaim
Capsule featured
sweatshirts and sweatpants made from textile waste; and its Re-color
collection
used Recycrom™ circular dye technology to
transform Pangaia offcut materials into colored powder dyestuffs for new
garments.

The partnership with Evrnu was born through a mutual mission to find
replacements for resource-intensive fibers such as cotton, and to harness
the value of materials already in circulation — rather than virgin
fossil-fuel or animal-derived fibers. The Renu jacket marks the world’s
first denim product entirely made from NuCycl.

“Evrnu represents the very best of innovation in the space of recycled fibers,”
says Dr. Amanda Parkes, Pangaia’s
Chief Innovation Officer. “We have been on a long journey together as partners
and we are delighted to be bringing out our first product together,
demonstrating the extraordinary potential for superior quality from recycling
technologies.”

Textile innovator Evrnu has invented polymer-regeneration technologies that
address one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time: textile
waste. With NuCycl — named one of TIME‘s Best Inventions of
2022 —
pre- and post-consumer textile waste is broken down and transformed into a
pristine new, high-performance fiber for creating new premium textile
products. NuCycl fiber is up to 4 times stronger than other cellulosic
fibers — including cotton and most manmade cellulosic
fibers
(MMCF) — and can be recycled up to 5 times without loss in performance or
quality. Using NuCycl helps divert textile waste away from
landfill
and
incineration
and is poised to reduce the industry’s reliance on cotton, MMCF, nylon and
polyester.

Products made with NuCycl can be disassembled to the molecular level and
regenerated multiple times into new clothing, home and industrial textiles with
extraordinary performance and environmental advantages. The technology uses
repolymerization to convert the original fiber molecules into new,
high-performing, renewable fibers. Evrnu says even the toughest type of
post-consumer textile waste (which tend to be blends of natural and synthetic
fibers such as polyester) can be turned into new materials with NuCycl. And
unlike mechanically recycled cotton, NuCycl does not need to be blended with any
virgin fiber and allows more recycling cycles — making it a significantly less
resource-intensive alternative to cotton or polyester.

“We are thrilled to partner with Pangaia, which shares our drive to unlock
the future of materials and technology for the fashion industry,” says Evrnu
CEO & co-founder Stacy Flynn.
“Our mission is to help brands create clothing out of recycled materials
that are not only of the highest quality but can also continue to be
recycled. We are delighted by the growing market demand for NuCycl.”

The Renu jacket is part of Pangaia’s approach to the modern wardrobe; with
an oversized fit, it is intended to be styled over a hoodie.

Starting February 16th, the Renu jacket will be available exclusively on Pangaia.com.

Filippa K to premiere game-changing recycled fabric of its own this fall

The Filippa K store in Copenhagen | Image credit: Filippa K

Meanwhile, Swedish ‘sensual minimalism’ brand Filippa
K announced this week it will be the first fashion
brand to premiere a new, recycled and renewable material — through a
collaboration with Swedish forest group Södra; global fiber producer
Lenzing; and Riopele, one of the oldest textile manufacturers in
Portugal. The partnership — the results of which will be seen in its
Spring/Summer 2024 collection this fall — is the latest in Filippa K’s ongoing
commitment to drive uptake of circular solutions in fashion.

Made from a combination of textile waste and wood cellulose, the revolutionary
pilot fiber is a product of Södra’s OnceMore®
fiber and Refibra™
technology
from
Lenzing
– the behind the ubiquitous wood-based fabric,
Tencel™.

“We are so excited to be the first brand developing products in the new textile
based on OnceMore pulp using Lenzing’s Refibra technology, supported by
Riopele’s creative expertise in yarn and fabric production,” says Jodi
Everding, VP of Sustainability at
Filippa K. “We are not in this alone — collaboration is an essential step in
sustainable transformation of the industry. It’s important to us at Filippa K to
join forces with like-minded partners who are innovators in their own fields.”

“One company alone can’t solve the pressing issue of textile waste; it is
proactive partnerships like this that enable us to move forward and bring about
real systemic change,” says Robert van de
Kerkhof, Chief
Commercial Officer, Fibre at Lenzing Group. “We’re working hard to make our
industries even more sustainable and to drive the transformation of the textile
business model from linear to circular. Further efforts from the entire industry
are needed for this transformation to take place.”

More information about this collaboration, fiber and garments will follow in the
coming months on www.filippa-k.com.

The fashion industry is abuzz with collaborations and initiatives aimed at
reducing its climate and environmental impacts — much of which is tied to both
the production of textiles and their waste. On the materials front, while Tencel
fibers, for example, are certified as
compostable and biodegradable, they’re still wood-based — which means felling
trees. At COP27 in November, fashion giants including H&M, Inditex,
Stella McCartney and Kering collectively
committed
to purchase over a half-million tonnes of low-carbon, low-footprint alternative
fibers to support the protection of the world’s vital forests and ecosystems and
reduce forest degradation pressures from fashion supply chains. While industry
waits for supply of these next-generation
fibers
to be able to meet growing demand, innovations such as
garments
and
shoes
made from captured carbon; scaling of biological recycling capabilities for
blended textiles by brands including Patagonia,
Puma
and Stella
McCartney;
and 37.5 Technology’s Enhanced
Biodegradation additive
— which accelerates the biodegradation of synthetic textiles in landfills — hold
promise for a climate-friendlier industry.