business trip

customer service forwarded me a note from customer about dyes and processes.

this is a very relevant convo for many people out there so thought this could be helpful to publish info/response if interested. pls pardon the grammatical imperfections i type fast as hell and thats the speed i like to go. thank you for your question. e.                         

Hi there,

Thanks for your inquiry about fabrics and dyes. We use eco-friendly fabrics and processes whenever possible and always on the lookout for ways we can improve and suppliers of new and improved fabrics/processing techniques.

The industry can take a long time to change is some ways – but it has been great to see the improvements in recent years and how better things are becoming more easily available. 

Materials we typically focus on: 

• organic cotton when possible – which is much easier to source for our Curation line in India because India is one of the leading organic cotton producers of the world 
• Organic linen and hemp fibers 
• Modal/tencel — fiber made from wood pulp and more eco friendly due to closed loop water systems and takes less dye to retain color (you can read more about closed loop systems on lenzing website) 

Frequently there is debate about what is the best fiber or process and arguments across the industry about if something is better or not better. Some years we see something that is supposed to be the best new thing then get devalued due to another part of its process that is not so great. That’s a reality of the business and like anything else we just do our best and keep improving where we can and keep rolling with the new information as it comes out. The good thing is that everything is going in the right direction – and all the small improvements do add up to big improvements industry wide. 

Dyes/dye techniques: 

• we are using low impact dyes across the board for Curation
• Our prints are block printed and hand printed  – including screen printing which is all done by hand

There is another important factor as well when considering dyes and processes: The modern customer. The modern customer typically needs garments to be easy to care for (machine was etc). 

Vegetable dyes, for instance (which are of a lot of interest to us personally) – can be very problematic for customers because they fade/do not retain color well in machine wash and can have issues with crocking, so we carefully balance when and where to offer vegetable dyes. 

In the future, maybe customers for vegetable dyes will increase and people will be more receptive to the qualities of these dyes – which will be great. 

One area the industry has issues in is excess fabric being milled each year. 

Fabric Production/waste: 

• we produce in small quantities to eliminate waste
• we use jobber fabric (mill ends) when possible for Emerson Fry 
• We use preorder as much as possible to be as exact as possible with our production numbers to have no waste

Production/where and why: 

• we produce all Emerson Fry pieces in the USA 
• We produce all Curation pieces in small batches in India for the beautiful hand printing and dying techniques of India 

This business has a lot of moving parts and one of the pleasures is watching how it and the customers evolve. As the customer gets more interested in better fibers and processes, so the market shifts to create more. Its a great ride and we're happy to do our best for our customers as it happens, continually learning and evaluating and reevaluating to offer the best to our customers. 

Thanks again for your note, please let us know if theres ever anything we can do for you. 

E.