Sustainability is 'business as usual' for us
Since its inception in 1953, Orta Anadolu has been weaving a denim heritage passed from generation to generation. Orta transformed from a spinning and weaving company to a denim manufacturer in 1985. Today, Orta operates in Turkey with a production capacity of 60 million metres of denim. Marketing and Washing Manager Zennure Danisman speaks about sustainability and denim.
How different are denim fabrics today as compared to those manufactured 10 years ago?
Today, trends are no longer as reliable as they were. Choices shift, climate changes, expectations vary, target consumers and their preferences change. We believe denim has and will always have a special handprint on culture. Denim, this cultural icon, is in transition. We support this transition of denim and transform our process accordingly.
Today, awareness of issues around sustainability and ethics is becoming a key concern for many in their apparel purchases, especially for millennials, often called the eco-modern generation whose purchasing decisions are becoming more discerning. According to the Millennial Impact Report, 87 per cent of millennials would be more loyal to a company that helps them contribute to social and environmental issues.
Our sustainability journey started at the beginning of 2000 with the use of organic cotton. Since then, our technologists and developers have been working to create the most advanced processes that yield superior quality fibres, recollect and re-life materials to reduce resource use. And today's eco-conscious generation's demands drive us to move forward to redefine, remix, reconstruct, remodel, and most importantly, rethink our business.
With the new, biodesigned and sustainable materials, we believe in the importance of the innovative solution in denim production. We believe that scarcity should be replaced with abundance that biology will create by recreating and reshaping nature. So we ask ourselves, what would denim look like in a world of abundance? To answer this question, we partnered with the Biodesign Challenge (BDC) in 2019. BDC tasks teams from top design schools to create denim products, reimagine alternative raw materials and rethink processes using biotechnology. By partnering design students with top-tier scientists, the challenge provides a new platform for envisioning positive and transformational applications for sustainable denim manufacturing and alternatives to cotton and other natural fibres.
As a continuum to our abundance story, this season, we are embracing sustainability from a technological point of view: Denimimicry: Denim + Biomimicry. Biomimicry is the design and production of materials modelled on elements of nature to solve complex human problems. Inspired by biomimicry, our goal is to create the eco net-positive fabrics, denim with an almost infinite life. We are investing in the biological and technological ways we can infinitely expand the life of every fibre, every drop of water, every biochemical, every dye, every finish and every ingredient ever in our creation of denim. We choose to focus on technology creating in harmony with nature rather than conquering it. Our aim is to create a more robust denim ecosystem where art and technology meet sustainability for infinite possibilities of denim.
The textile industry is considered to be a huge pollutant, and denim perhaps among the most. How do you try and keep the carbon footprint as low as possible?
At Orta, sustainability is 'business as usual'. Our aim is to create a more robust denim ecosystem where art (design) meets technology meets ethics for infinite possibilities of denim. Last year, we celebrated our 65th anniversary with a handprint mission: while our footprint is what we take from the planet, when we consume, our handprint is what we give the planet back when we create change for better. We are working towards creating a future where denim is designed, produced, consumed and disposed of in radically different ways, and our handprint reflects our present, and embraces our sustainable future.
We have a three-pillar sustainability model: product, process and purpose. Product is the area where we manage our fibres and innovative processes. In process, we carefully examine energy, chemicals, emissions, water, waste and stakeholder engagement at the organisational level. And purpose is where we define our social missions and labour.
In this scope, we developed Indigo Flow, a sustainable dyeing process in which up to 70 per cent water is saved. Indigo Flow has been our standard dyeing process since 2016 and between 2016 and 2018, we saved 20 million litres of water with this technology.
Denim in its original form-the hard-working fabric-has undergone many blends making it softer and more fashion oriented. How do you view this change?
Denim transforms according to trends and new technologies. We discovered that a new soft-wear fit is being demanded. And this fit has rightly become a gender- inclusive body-positive issue. In this scope, with our Symphony concept, we composed luxury together with performance and softness. Our Symphony Concept fabrics are soft due to our Alchemy Finish and due to usage of Tencel Lyocell, Tencel xRefibra.
Which are your major markets for denim fabrics? Which new ones do you plan to explore?
We have touch points in every major market for denim. With our showrooms and offices all around the world, we keep our dialogue with clients accessible and have a hands-on relationship with different markets.
Which weaves and finishes are evergreen? What new weaves and finishes are you working on?
Orta translates 65 years of craftsmanship that optimises the advantages of laser technology, pioneering the link between art, technology and sustainability. In that perspective, Light Force delivers fabrics with enhanced response characteristics for laser finishing. The Light Force denim fabrics allow for relatively fast colour change in response to laser, colour changes in hue from indigo blue to white, many gray scale levels, and maintains strength and stretch properties.
Additionally, our iconic finishing process Alchemy permits the use of less resin than other mercerisation techniques, reducing the use of softener, resin, anti-pilling enzyme in garment finish. Alchemy is a finish processing that delivers amazing characteristics, including improved lustre, smoothness and provides durable and fresh look after multiple washes.
Orta Lab also developed clay-coated fabrics, called Halys, for our AW20/21 and SS21 Collections. Clay is a natural, environment-friendly material with many positive characteristics, which evolves into Halys.
What is the number of swatches that your library boasts of?
We are a 65-year-old company and we have a rich archive. We are weaving our stories through our own special denim history archive by echoing the past, present and future of denim. We reimagined the vintage with today's environmental and human respective processes and the most authentic looks.
Every season, for each collection, we develop approximately 100 new fabrics inspired by our archive together with new technologies and nature.
What is the annual production capacity at Orta?
Today, Orta operates in Turkey with a production capacity of 60 million metres of denim and with more than 1,500 employees, creating a platform for leading manufacturers to step up and reclaim a denim industry where more aesthetics leads to more ethics.
What are the trends for Spring/Summer 2020?
We are at an interesting time in the industrial race for the lead in sustainable fashion and circular manufacturing processes. Every fabric mill has a mission in place; Orta is the leading denim manufacturer who has been fulfilling its mission since 2010.
Our aim is to establish the foundation of a new platform for thinking about materially smart design for a resilient future.
For our SS21 Denimimicry (Denim meets Biomimicry) collection, we have a unique Gen H capsule made from eco-wise hemp. Hemp is naturally anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, super soft, biodegradable and breathable.
We are also working on increasing the usage of recycled and sustainable materials. Around 80 per cent of the fibres used in our SS21 Denimimicry collection have at least one sustainable characteristic; organic, recycled, biodegradable, regenerated, biobased or recyclable. This season we have one word for the eco net-positive fabrics: The Immortalist: Denim with an (almost) infinite life. Our 'The Immortalist' is the ultimate sustainability commitment in a fabric with the components; organic cotton + TencelxRefibra + EcoMade T400.
What amount of denim fabric produced by you is sustainable?
Around 80 per cent of the fibres used in SS21 Denimimicry collection have at least one sustainable characteristic; organic, recycled, biodegradable, regenerated, biobased or recyclable. By using especially organic and recycled fibres instead of virgin and conventional materials, we are saving significant amounts of chemicals, energy and water that are specifically consumed in the fibre production stage.
Since A/W 2019-20 collection, the environmental impacts of all Orta fabrics are assessed with LCA methodology and their results are shared via QR codes on product hangtags. The assessment is done for the Denimimicry collection as well.
What new denim technologies and innovations do you plan to implement?
Denim with alternative fibres and new technologies at the washing steps are the recent advances in the denim industry.
For SS21, we expanded our collection with eco-functional fabrics with new technologies. The unique Gen H collection has a more rustic approach to authenticity, with a single material that celebrates sustainability and minimalism. Hemp is naturally anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, super soft, biodegradable and breathable. It is the closest we will get to a natural nirvana in denim.
In addition to Gen H, we launched CBDenim, which is infused with CBD oil for blissful and soothing skin wellness. CBDenim mixes this wellness elixir with eco-soft fibres and gentle stretch for amazing body wellness with every step.
The eco-modern generation is marching for revolution and they want to wear denim that tells a new story. Join us to envision how innovations in the field of biotechnology can transform denim and production processes behind it. We believe that scarcity should be replaced with abundance that biology will create by recreating and reshaping the nature. We are taking nature's lead and exploring the symbiosis between science and design that promises to inspire a wider variety of visionary processes and systems than any individual discipline could develop alone.
