Recycled bamboo, plastic and cashmere for environmentally friendly textiles

Bamboo is renowned for its multiple qualities, flexibility and resistance, for example, making it suitable for use in various sectors including furniture, construction and even fashion. And it is precisely in this last field that she has specialized an Italian company which, thanks to the creation of bamboo fabrics, produces scarves, socks, bags and kaftans. In fact, since 2012 Innbamboo The Original®, this is the name of the Tuscan company, has embarked on this entrepreneurial path, which aims at a more sensitive business model towards the planet. How? Through what concrete actions? Piergiorgio Caggiarico-founder and creative director, told us about the world of Inbamboo.

A family business

“Bamboo, as a material to be used in the textile sector, was chosen by my mother Donatella Perrone who, after having had this intuition, was able to convey to us all the enthusiasm necessary to give life to the project – explains Caggiari -. We wanted to create an alternative product, new for Italy but also interesting for foreign markets. We are committed to giving space to a know-how from other times, capable of offering valuable solutions, in open contrast to the increasingly unsustainable logic of fast fashion. The greatest stimulus to continue in this direction came from our first customers and collaborators, who appreciated and supported our ideas and creations with conviction, immediately understanding the enormous potential of bamboo yarn, still little known in those years. “

The beginnings of this entrepreneurial idea, which dates back to almost ten years ago, also arise from the comparison and passion of people of different ages and sensitivities, including Perrone’s husband, Ivano Piccenonihis son Riccardo and Caggiari’s wife, Verónica Damiano. A fully-fledged “family” company, where everyone does their best to make it grow.

Regenerated products and materials

The company produces bamboo fabrics from which accessories and clothing are created: scarves inspired by the world of art, bags in bamboo and hemp fabric whose internal linings are made entirely from the recycling of plastic bottles recovered from the Italian seas, kaftans and kimonos in bamboo and organic cotton, women’s socks inspired by the beauties of Tuscan cities and recently the Bamboo® Cashmere Foulard.

“The Bamboo® Cashmere Foulards – underlines the creative director – are above all the concrete manifestation of our deep bond with the territory: with this new line we have in fact strengthened the relationship with many artisans of the area, learning at the same time to consider waste as a resource and not a waste. We have revived the ancient tradition of regenerating used clothes, the so-called cenci, updating this ante litteram example of circular economy. We started from the idea of ​​recovering old clothes, reworked until they become new yarn, and we applied it to cashmere: creating a new blend, never produced before, composed of pure regenerated cashmere and bamboo staple.The project, in giving a second life to old garments, also offers an effective response to the problem of pollution produced by textile sector in the disposal phase.”

Raw materials and production chain

Piergiorgio Caggiari tells us where the raw materials used to make the garments come from: “The raw materials (yarns) are purchased in the countries they belong to or where the specific cultivation is characterized. Each supplier, often represented by an Italian company, offers a clear and transparent technical data sheet describing origin, production systems and sustainability certifications – information that we often attach in the documentation that follows the export of our products. We import the bamboo from the Orient and it is processed in Tuscany to be transformed into fabric. Other fibers come from countries such as Peru which boasts excellent quality cotton, Austria from which we buy Tencel and so on for Portugal, Greece and Turkey.”

Instead in terms of production Caggiari underlines that “the processes, from conception to the finished product, are carried out within a radius of 30 km from our headquarters in Calenzano, in the province of Florence, in the bed of one of the most renowned textile districts in the world. Our fashion garments and accessories take shape thanks to the collaboration with local companies and laboratories that offer us an important contribution both in respect of traditions and in the formulation of innovative solutions.”

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Renewable energies, textile waste and sustainable certifications

As for the attention to the environment for the creation of fabrics, the creative director states: “we use looms powered by renewable energy; the stages of dyeing are carried out using certified raw materials, favoring artisanal manufacturing techniques and, as regards thewater, with a closed-loop system that avoids wasting this important resource. There fabric decoration it takes place manually for some lines or, alternatively, by means of printing with traditional systems very similar to screen printing. Our production is very close to 0% textile wasteee in stark contrast to the risk of overproduction: thanks to careful and punctual planning management, we are able to produce only what is necessary to meet effective demand, avoiding waste and unsold items. The certifications in our possession are Okeo-Tex and Gots GOTS – Global Organic Textile Standard for the yarns, FSC for the recycled paper used for packaging and for the paper information material on the products. The dyes are all accompanied by certifications of compliance with European standards in terms of sustainability and linked to the 4sustainability brand for some processes.”

A greener and more local-focused future

On the future of fashion and of his company, the co-founder believes that “Tuscany, in addition to being home, is a heritage of stories to tell, of textile traditions to be handed down and reinterpreted. In our opinion, attention to the environment it can, and must, manifest itself in many ways, even in the choice of garments to wear. We have chosen to be sustainable, we produce with attention and quality, offering people an example of beautiful fashion that respects the Planet.”