We at Marimekko follow the research and development of materials made from recycled materials with great interest and we also encourage our designers to explore different recycling options while looking for new materials. Our continuous goal is to increase the share of more sustainable materials in our collections, and recycled materials are one way to promote this goal.
Marimekko’s summer 2016 collection includes jersey series called Stripe made with yarn from textile industry waste. The raw materials are sourced from areas where significant amounts of textile waste is generated. In production, the different coloured yarn and fabric waste is sorted, carded, blended and re-spun into yarn together with virgin fibres. Virgin fibres improve the quality and durability of the yarn. The yarn is knitted into jersey by the Tessuti & Tessuti knitwear factory in Italy, before taking a trip to be sewn at Marimekko’s contract manufacturer in Lithuania.
Designer Mai Ohta fell in love with the jersey fabric made from recycled yarn and chose it for the collection not just for its environmental aspects but also for the feel and good looks of the material.
”I wanted to bring a new kind of material in the collection, and I fell in love with the fabric’s rough and dry, slightly linen-style feel, which immediately brought summer to mind. Although environmentally friendly materials can sometimes be challenging from the perspective of quality, I was glad that the recycled material performed very well in tests.”
The Kunilla dress and Kaila tunic from the Stripe collection are availabble in our online store www.marimekko.com.
