Tim van der Loo & Sandra Nielsen

New Blue

New Blue

The New Blue project stems from a desire to rethink the notion of recycled materials and create a truly circular product lifecycle.

With the rise of fast fashion, denim has transitioned from durable workwear fabric into a staple of the contemporary wardrobe and we are left with vast streams of waste without the infrastructure to absorb them.

A worn-out pair of jeans is treated as a waste product, from which the useful materials can be extracted and then repurposed as, for example, building insulation. This project seeks to change this methodology by instead finding a way of reincarnating the jeans as a renewed version of themselves.

To begin the process, discarded jeans – serving as a raw material – are cut into small fibres and then bonded to form a fleece. During the course of the project, two distinct routes have been explored, each with their own unique qualities: an industrially produced recycled jeans fibre non-woven fabric, and a self-produced, “crafted” non-woven fabric. The industrially produced non-woven shows a homogenous, uniform surface, whereas the crafted fleece appears irregular, rough and textured, giving room for individual expression.

The use of old and traditional craft techniques like paper making is applied with New Blue Craft. Instead of using paper pulp to create a surface of paper, discarded jeans are hand cut into small parts, shredded and poured over a fine mesh surface stretched over a wooden frame. When releasing, pressing and drying the jeans fibers, they stick together like paper and become a hand crafted recycled non woven.

New Blue Industry focuses on industrial textile machines qualified to create new textiles out of recycled jeans fibers on a larger scale. Our suppliers are providing recycled textile fibers sourced from collected wasted jeans. These jeans fibers are bonded into a new non-woven fleece. The fleece is embroidered to reinforce the non woven textile and create the cut-patterns for the jeans.

The concept offers a novel way to form defined areas on a fabric. Digitally-aided industrial embroidery is applied to the fleece not only to create a stable fabric but also to generate the cut-patterns needed for the final piece of clothing, thus rationalising the entire production process from fibres to garment.

The embroidered areas of the non-woven cloth remain intact when exposed to water, whereas the non-embroidered parts of the fleece disintegrate. These loose denim fibres can be reused as raw material, while the embroidered parts remain stable and can be sewn together without further cutting, establishing a circular and zero waste production method.

New Blue promotes a different material cycle, which manifests itself in the novel production sequences as well as its final outcome. The traditional end product is now envisaged as one stage within a continuous, circular succession of decomposing and recomposing.

By adopting this approach, the aesthetic of the jeans - from the texture of the reborn denim, and the design of the overstitching to the cut of the pattern - can also evolve with time, responding to trends and ensuring the reincarnated product is always relevant and personal.

The New Blue project stems from a desire to rethink the notion of recycled materials and create a truly circular product lifecycle.

With the rise of fast fashion, denim has transitioned from durable workwear fabric into a staple of the contemporary wardrobe and we are left with vast streams of waste without the infrastructure to absorb them.

A worn-out pair of jeans is treated as a waste product, from which the useful materials can be extracted and then repurposed as, for example, building insulation. This project seeks to change this methodology by instead finding a way of reincarnating the jeans as a renewed version of themselves.

To begin the process, discarded jeans – serving as a raw material – are cut into small fibres and then bonded to form a fleece. During the course of the project, two distinct routes have been explored, each with their own unique qualities: an industrially produced recycled jeans fibre non-woven fabric, and a self-produced, “crafted” non-woven fabric. The industrially produced non-woven shows a homogenous, uniform surface, whereas the crafted fleece appears irregular, rough and textured, giving room for individual expression.

The use of old and traditional craft techniques like paper making is applied with New Blue Craft. Instead of using paper pulp to create a surface of paper, discarded jeans are hand cut into small parts, shredded and poured over a fine mesh surface stretched over a wooden frame. When releasing, pressing and drying the jeans fibers, they stick together like paper and become a hand crafted recycled non woven.

New Blue Industry focuses on industrial textile machines qualified to create new textiles out of recycled jeans fibers on a larger scale. Our suppliers are providing recycled textile fibers sourced from collected wasted jeans. These jeans fibers are bonded into a new non-woven fleece. The fleece is embroidered to reinforce the non woven textile and create the cut-patterns for the jeans.

The concept offers a novel way to form defined areas on a fabric. Digitally-aided industrial embroidery is applied to the fleece not only to create a stable fabric but also to generate the cut-patterns needed for the final piece of clothing, thus rationalising the entire production process from fibres to garment.
The embroidered areas of the non-woven cloth remain intact when exposed to water, whereas the non-embroidered parts of the fleece disintegrate. These loose denim fibres can be reused as raw material, while the embroidered parts remain stable and can be sewn together without further cutting, establishing a circular and zero waste production method.

New Blue promotes a different material cycle, which manifests itself in the novel production sequences as well as its final outcome. The traditional end product is now envisaged as one stage within a continuous, circular succession of decomposing and recomposing.

By adopting this approach, the aesthetic of the jeans - from the texture of the reborn denim, and the design of the overstitching to the cut of the pattern - can also evolve with time, responding to trends and ensuring the reincarnated product is always relevant and personal.

New Blue consists of two routes; the industrialised textile (New Blue Industry) and the crafted textile (New Blue Craft). With these two opposites the studio aims to develop recycled jeans textiles and garments with different tactilities and for different purposes, both having different properties.

Today A New Kind of Blue has established a wide range of garments with new sustainable treatments showing novel expressions of the recycled jeans material.

With an absolute minimum usage of water, chemicals, and dye, the new high quality expressions of the New Blue material, industry and craft, have been made. This by the courtesy of the research grant Re-FREAM under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The various new colours that have been added to the palette of New Blue: Logwood (natural dye), Indigo, Pink Black and Vintage.

The story of the circular economy continues in the manufacturing of the garments. All items created with the studio are carefully assembled according to the principles of mono-material, made-for-disassembly and upcycling.

In each garment the seams are done with 100 % cotton thread. The lining consists of upcycled high quality sourced 100% men’s shirts. The upcycled lining also adds to the concept of mono-material, meaning to make each garment only from one material so it is less complicated to recycle. Another addition to the idea of disassembly is the screw-on-buttons on the jackets and pants. The buttons are easy to separate with a screw on system to make them reusable. When the garment is not able to be worn again it could be easily recycled and be reincarnated as a recycled garment again.

The garments show a new expression of what the future of recycled jeans holds. Novel recycled materials that show a rich history and context of what it was before as well as a different thicker textiles than the jeans as we know envisaging novel tactility and utility for the future wearer of now.

New Blue consists of two routes; the industrialised textile (New Blue Industry) and the crafted textile (New Blue Craft). With these two opposites the studio aims to develop recycled jeans textiles and garments with different tactilities and for different purposes, both having different properties.

Today A New Kind of Blue has established a wide range of garments with new sustainable treatments showing novel expressions of the recycled jeans material.

With an absolute minimum usage of water, chemicals, and dye, the new high quality expressions of the New Blue material, industry and craft, have been made. This by the courtesy of the research grant Re-FREAM under the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The various new colours that have been added to the palette of New Blue: Logwood (natural dye), Indigo, Pink Black and Vintage.

The story of the circular economy continues in the manufacturing of the garments. All items created with the studio are carefully assembled according to the principles of mono-material, made-for-disassembly and upcycling.

In each garment the seams are done with 100 % cotton thread. The lining consists of upcycled high quality sourced 100% men’s shirts. The upcycled lining also adds to the concept of mono-material, meaning to make each garment only from one material so it is less complicated to recycle. Another addition to the idea of disassembly is the screw-on-buttons on the jackets and pants. The buttons are easy to separate with a screw on system to make them reusable. When the garment is not able to be worn again it could be easily recycled and be reincarnated as a recycled garment again.

The garments show a new expression of what the future of recycled jeans holds. Novel recycled materials that show a rich history and context of what it was before as well as a different thicker textiles than the jeans as we know envisaging novel tactility and utility for the future wearer of now.

https://www.creative-city-berlin.de/en/ccb-magazine/2021/3/2/at-home-with-new-blue/?theme=all&

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slw3EC2_wrc

https://anewkindofblue.com

Denim is a favorite worn item owned by many regardless of gender, age and demographics. Since the invention of the jeans it became an iconic garment representing society in different classes and cultures showing individuality and representing rebellion against the old ways of dressing.

We want to show this rebellion again, looking at the current state of fast fashion and how denim is actually made; from polluting ecosystems with chemicals and overuse of water to the unfair working conditions in garment manufacturing. At the same time enormous amounts of waste are generated by fast fashion and its consumption making fashion a throw away product, which is after its lifetime easily discarded without any care or infrastructure to absorb them.

We change this by looking at waste and transforming the easily discarded and for many seen as careless and invaluable garments as a raw resource that can be recycled again to be transformed into new values. We take the challenge to take one of our most beloved garments – The jeans – and process it back to a recycled blue jeans fibre that is reshaped into a non woven fleece. This fleece is reinforced by embroidery making it a stable fabric for garment. The characteristics of non woven embroidered textile are called New Blue, showing a new kind of blue for the future of jeans. The recycled jeans textile displays a new aesthetic as well as tactility as the jeans we all know. This material shows the rich history and context of the life it had before as well as the new feeling of wearing this fabric which is not woven, but non woven and embroidered. The New Blue material opens up new functionalities in garment making as it is thinker, softer and less rigid making the fabric easier to work with and shape around the diverse bodies we have in our societies.

With New Blue we respond to society by showing that recycled garments have a new aesthetic and definition of jeans. By using waste as a raw material or resource we aim to reuse and absorb the garments that are leftover and in doing so making sure that on our pathway we work carefully with local enterprises with fair working conditions and recycled materials. All the steps in the supply chain are done within the concept of a circular economy, making sure nothing is wasted,everything is regenerated and that it will not compromise our delicate environment.