In the wake of the eighth anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, just-style continues to look at issues around the tragedy. Two initiatives were set up in the aftermath of the incident to oversee the country s clothing factories for fire, electrical and structural issues – the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety. The Accord’s tenure comes to an end next month, and there are serious concerns for garment workers if another agreement is not signed soon.
The Rana Plaza disaster was a wake-up call to Bangladesh and the entire garment industry that building and worker safety should be a priority. Eight years on and the country has one of the safest and most transparent apparel industries thanks to the remediation work that ensued. But while much has been achieved, there remains no room for complacency.
The denim maker and hemp fiber producer said they will work to bring traceability and scale to the textile-grade cottonized hemp grown and processed in the United States, adding to the latter’s new partnership with Pakistani mill AGI. With a plethora of brands recently introducing collections showcasing hemp and hemp blends, often with cotton or other natural fibers such as Tencel, it’s worth questioning whether hemp would soon eclipse cotton as the favorite fiber of the fashion flock.
The answer seems to be: Not so fast.
“We are focused on hemp as a complementary fiber to cotton in terms of performance and additional properties that make it ideal for combining with cotton to create strong, comfortable apparel,” a Kontoor Brands spokesperson said. “As we and others in the industry continue to adopt hemp as an alternative fiber option, economies of scale will help to reduce the price of hemp, making it a more attainable fiber option for apparel.”
Kontoor Brands And Panda Biotech Team Up To Accelerate The Commercialization Of U S Grown And Processed Hemp textileworld.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from textileworld.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
For its latest innovation to streamline the production of denim, Jeanologia turned to industries where humans and robots produce in the same work space for inspiration.
Taking a page out of the automotive sector’s playbook, the technology company presented Handman, a finishing system that is equipped with two robots and eight lasers. The systems require two people to load jeans onto hangers, or “collaborate” with the robots, ultimately leading to 10,000 finished jeans in 24 hours with zero waste.
Jeanologia CEO Enrique Silla described Handman as the “future of our industry,” adding that only with automation is it possible to have clean and scalable manufacturing with reduced costs, greater agility and a better production look. The technology is already a reality and is being used in three manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Tunisia, producing 5 million jeans a year.
April 21, 2021
DALLAS & KARACHI, Pakistan April 21, 2021 AGI Denim and Panda Biotech are pleased to announce they have entered into a global production partnership. AGI Denim will combine its innovative and industry-leading denim manufacturing technologies with American-grown industrial hemp processed and cottonized at Panda Biotech’s state-of-the-art facility in the United States, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and believed to be the largest in the world.
The partnership is an exciting step forward for innovation within the industry. Today’s eco-conscious consumers increasingly demand high-quality, yet sustainable products that conserve the Earth’s precious resources and reduce its carbon footprint. Both companies expect to play a leading role in discovering how sustainable, hemp-based fibers and materials can be used to create high-quality denim.