Italian Silk Mill Clerici Tessuto collaborates with Parley for the Oceans to create textiles from recycled PET bottles
Image courtesy of Clerici Tessuto
Clerici Tessuto combines traditional Comascan craftsmanship with the innovative excellence of the Como silk industry. As a key textile supplier to the world luxury market since 1922, Clerici produces ethical textiles for longevity and is constantly researching new ways to use yarns in woven and printing techniques, with a speciality in compact jacquard weaves. Clerici aims to put sustainable silk back on the map by promoting the regenerative aspects of mulberry tree farming. The company also works with recycled polyester to discourage dependency on virgin polyester and reduce further plastic pollution.
We sat down with Clerici to discuss their latest collaboration with Parley for the Oceans, who was also our partner for the Future Fabrics Expo Seminar Series Programme.
Future Fabrics Expo: Clerici is best known in the fashion industry as a luxury supplier of silk. There are many other fibres you work with, too. Can you tell us about your newest collaboration with Parley for the Oceans? What prompted you to start working with yarns made from recycled PET bottles washed up on beaches?
Clerici Tessuto: Clerici Tessuto has almost one century of history in luxury fabrics production based on silk. However in the last five years we have made a relevant transformation, applying creativity to a wider range of fibres. Less than half of our production is now silk and we work with cotton, viscose, nylon and polyester as examples. All these types of fibres are based also on sustainable raw materials, fully certified, from Global Organic Textile Standard, to recycled or bio-based fibres.
In this renewed context, Clerici Tessuto has sealed an agreement with Parley for the Oceans to produce luxury fabrics using a GRS (Global Recycle Standard) polyester yarn, crafted from upcycled marine plastic debris intercepted from beaches, islands and coastal communities. We are really delighted to collaborate with Parley — we share similar values in protecting our ecosystem; we contribute to saving our planet for future generations through our daily behaviours as well as our products. Clerici Tessuto is able to produce lasting, high quality luxury fabrics by mixing a deep knowledge of the industry, top-level creativity and a sustainable value chain. We were able to transform GRS yarns from Parley and apply them to our products, for both beachwear and high-end fabrics for ready-to-wear.
By creating sustainable raw materials for brands, we are contributing to a new textile vision that can change the industry: using recycled instead of virgin materials offers an opportunity to drastically reduce the negative impacts of the industry. We pour our experienced savoir-faire with the latest textile techniques to create a new mix of fabrics.
Clerici textiles made with recycled PET yarns in collaboration with Parley for the Oceans.
FFE: Did you encounter any challenges working with recycled PET yarns?
CT: Basic recycled PET yarns do not have all the features that are required for the luxury fabrics as we create. So we performed a lot of research and development on basic yarns in order to obtain a raw material that was useful for our production and style. We managed to create new yarns aligned with our high quality products: our skills and experience allowed us to process every production step and get the best performance from Parley yarns.
FFE: How were you able to fine tune the production and finishing processes to reach the quality you desired?
CT: The fine tuning of production (basic yarn preparation, warping, weaving, dyeing, printing and finishing) required an iterative and agile process on the whole value chain. We established a cross-disciplinary team among style departments, product development and our mills to overcome some challenges posed by recycled polyester. In the beginning, we focused on yarn features and afterwards we applied the experience on polyester fabrics we’ve already done in the past. It was not an easy task to find the right combination of production phases in order to achieve the goals we originally planned, but we managed it.
The Clerici Archive at their headquarters office. Image courtesy of Clerici Tessuto.
FFE: What sort of reactions have the Parley x Clerici yarns received from industry? Can you tell us about any interesting brand collaborations using your Parley x Clerici yarns?
CT: A significant number of clients showed an amazing interest towards the collaboration and the products we created from Parley yarns. We are working with a selection of clients to create new qualities aligned to their expectations. We are not in the position to disclose any brands now and will have to wait until after the final presentation to our clients. Generally speaking, there is an increasing demand for sustainable qualities from all our customers and the Parley collaboration enriches our offering.
FFE: What are your goals and plans moving forward?
CT: We would like to continually improve our sustainability strategy in order to contribute even more to changing our industry. We want to assure that production will sustain and protect the biodiversity of our ecosystem. So we would focus on stimulating the demand for recycled materials in the market which advocate environmental values. We would design and realise a vast majority of products for our clients in a way that aligns to sustainability principles while improving our CO2 footprint, addressing our value chain in the right direction. We think tech innovation will also play an important role in the industry journey towards a circular economy.
Clerici at the 9th Future Fabrics Expo 2020 in London, UK
