Soko’s all-in-one Stardust solution
Italian chemicals supplier Soko presented its new Stardust at Kingpins Amsterdam last month. It is the company’s lowest impact process to date, Luca Braschi, denim laundry expert and consultant for Soko, tells Inside Denim.
“Stardust is a compound solution in powder form which condenses 80% of conventional wash processes into a single step, from raw to vintage looks,” says Mr Braschi. He adds that it delivers premium and authentic aesthetics, including salt & pepper effects and good high and low contrasts. It has been found to be equally effective on indigo, sulphur black and dyed products.
Stardust is applied on wet garments without a bath of water. A mid-shade vintage look will be obtained after a dry ozone treatment, the company said. The process results are very simple, avoiding the steps usually required such as stonewashing enzymes, potassium permanganate acid wash, pumice stones, hypochlorite, caustic soda, peroxide, detergents and mordants for vintage look dyeing. All without the use of water and reducing stocks of chemicals.
“Our goal at Soko is to make sustainable wash processes easy and high performance while delivering premium aesthetics,” he said.
The new Stardust by Soko is another example of the growing role of ozone processing in denim making. “At Soko we are changing and improving the use of ozone technologies and we believe there is more potential that yet needs to be explored,” said Mr Braschi, mentioning that its Stardust process will not stress fabrics as much compared to conventional processes.
Image courtesy of Soko
