Pure Denim: high quality weaving in Italy

If you're reading this you must be into the technicalities of textiles, so hereby some facts. Any woven fabric consists of two distinct sets of yarns that are interlaced at right angles. The longitudinal yarns are called the warp and the lateral threads are known as the weft. Denim is woven according to the twill pattern, which has its heritage in workwear and is known for creating strong fabrics.

Developing the HNST fabric we came across the fact that weaving small quantities is not simple. When you want to install a new warp loom, minimum production quantities are quite high (more than 7000 meters). Given the start-up scale of HNST, we decided to use the existing recycled warp yarn of our Italian denim mill. This warp yarn consists of 60% pre-consumer recycled denim (fabric waste from pattern cutting) and 40% Greek cotton (non-GMO).

Combining 60% of Pure Denim's warp yarn with 40% of the HNST weft yarn, consisting of 50% post-consumer recycled denim and 50% Tencel®, lead into the creation of the HNST fabric containing 56% recycled denim, 23% Greek cotton and 21% Tencel®.

In denim fabric, only the warp yarn is being dyed. Take a look at your blue jeans and you’ll see that the inside is white or -in case of recycled fabric- grey/blue instead of dark indigo blue. For dying the warp yarn, our denim mill has invested in in-house production of indigo. For this, they are using their unique patented technology called Smart-Indigo.

On top, our Italian denim mill PureDenim has been on a journey towards ecology for over 12 years. They have invested in a cogeneration plant that, in addition to making themselves self-sufficient in the supply of clean energy, has allowed the recovery of thermal energy with an equivalent reduction of carbon dioxide. Since the commissioning of the new plant, they avoided more than 9,8 million kilograms of carbon dioxide, thus saving 570 000 trees.

Today, thanks to their continuous research since 2008, for each meter of denim they averaged 70-80% less water with 60% less pollution than other manufacturers. Last but not least, PureDenim was the first denim manufacturer to receive the Greenpeace Detox patent in 2014, having eliminated the 12 most polluting and harmful chemicals from their production process.

Read more about the HNST production process or discover more HNST stories.