Kipa? Denim Links with Archroma and Jeanologia to Make Laundry-Friendly Fabrics

Kipa? Denim has engineered a fabric collection that works better with sustainable finishing technologies.

The Turkish mill unveiled Contra Denim, a laser- and laundry-friendly fabric range that achieves vintage effects and high contrasts with less impact on the environment. Traditional methods to give black and indigo fabric a worn or distressed look require significant water usage, harmful chemicals and intensive manual labor.

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The fabric was developed with chemical company Archroma. Contra Denim utilizes Archroma’s Denim Halo approach to denim production, which incorporates Dirsol RD, a resource-saving pretreatment, and dyeing processes to produce fabrics that are easy to wash and laser.

The special pretreatment is applied in the first box of the dyeing machine which takes place on the dry denim yarn, Umberto De Vita, market segment director-denim, Archroma Textile Effects, told Rivet.

Archroma launched Denim Halo earlier this year. The platform delivers a substantially reduced environmental footprint compared to the industry-standard denim finishing process while reducing yarn shrinkage and improving garment tensile strength. Denim Halo technologies include Denisol Pure Indigo 30 LIQ, Diresul Smartdenim blue and Diresul Evolution Black.

The Contra Denim’s vintage looks are achieved with laser marking technology from Spanish firm Jeanologia. Thanks to the combination of Archroma and Jeanologia technologies, manual hand scraping or potassium permanganate spraying harmful for workers and the environment are eliminated from the finishing process.

Contra Denim is available in black and indigo. The ContraBlack collection earned a Jeanologia Environmental Impact Measurement (EIM) score of 11 on stone wash versus the ring dyeing market standard score of 67. This confirms the low impact of the ContraBlack range in both water and energy consumption, chemical impact and workers’ health.

“With Contra Denim, we are making it possible for the world’s denim brands to unleash their design creativity without compromising their environmental ambitions or production efficiency,” said Mustafa Guleken, Kipa? Denim general manager.