Made from 100% recycled materials, the main material of the Aarre x Puuvillatehdas collection is the cutting waste from our own sewing factory. Aartee's clothes made entirely in the EU include the Malia dress and the Stella blouse . The material of the product's buttons contains 60% recycled hemp. You can find Puuvillatehta's products at puuvillatehdas.fi
The journey from clippings to clothing
In our own sewing shop, Black Moda Portugal, a small scrap of cutting waste was collected for the project, which was composed of either 100% cotton or a mixture of 95% cotton and 5% elastane. The cutting waste was transported from our own sewing shop to Spain to our partner Col & Brille, where it was re-opened, re-spun into yarn and woven into fabric. The recycling process makes the cotton fiber shorter, which reduces the quality of the fiber. In order to make the yarn more durable, polyester, which is made from recycled plastic bottles, was combined with cotton in the spinning. The fabric's warp thread is GOTS- and BCI-certified recycled cotton and recycled polyester from elsewhere. The color of the final fabric comes from the color of the recycled material. To respect the more ecological production process, we decided not to dye or print the fabric. The feel of the fabric is coarse and linen-like. The material puckers a little more sensitively than usual, which has been taken into account in the product design. However, it is easy to keep the surface of the fabric in good condition with careful care of the product.
By using recycled material, water is saved in addition to the material
In the cutting room of our own sewing company, Black Moda Portugal, tens of thousands of kilos of cutting waste are generated every year. Although the cutting plans are always made as materially efficient as possible, during the cutting phase of the products, there are extra small pieces of cutting that cannot be used in garment manufacturing. The material is clean and unused and at the same time valuable material. The finished fabric was woven into the first batch of 389 kg, which contains about 270 kg of recycled cotton. Water consumption per kilogram of cotton is approximately 16,000 liters** on average. Using this recycled material saved about 270 kg of virgin cotton, so the water saving was a whopping 4,320,000 liters. With that amount of water, one Finn would wash, cook and flush the toilet for about 38,230 days, or almost 105 years!
Aarre NEO - the materials of the future gathered together
The Aarre x Puuvillatehdas collection is part of the new Aarre NEO concept , which presents new innovations and materials of the future. Under Aarre NEO, we try and present the latest winds of our production. In addition to the new collection, Aarre NEO currently also includes our Supreme Green Cotton® products, whose entire production chain can be easily traced all the way to the cotton field by scanning the QR code found on the product's hang tag. Follow us on social media @aarrelabel and stay tuned for our latest innovations!
*To produce one kilogram of cotton, 4,000–29,000 liters of water are needed.
Source: Suomen Tekstiili ja Muoti, Tekstiilikuituopas 2021, p. 11
**The average Finn uses about 113 liters of water per day for household use, mainly for washing, cooking and flushing the toilet.
Source: 19 April 2021 https://www.kiinteistolehti.fi/keskimaarainen-vedenkaytto-vahentynyt/
