Circulose makes deadstock denim doubly ‘circular’
The ambition driving Benim Denim, a soon-to-be-short-lived fashion label launched by Stockholm-based creatives Haisam Mohammed and Noah Bramme on December 27, is actually, atypically, “to shut down as soon as possible”.
Making only a single unisex raw denim jacket and one style of jeans from a 170-metre roll of surplus denim fabric – “salvaged” by its manufacturer, Swedish dissolving cellulose pulp maker Renewcell, after another customer overordered – the duo is adamant that their brand will only be in business so long as this single roll keeps on giving. The deadstock denim is itself a blend of 60% cotton and 40% Circulose-made viscose content, produced entirely from cotton-rich textile waste such as post-consumer jeanswear and factory-floor scrap. Renewcell calls this “virgin-quality” material “circular cellulose”, hence the name.
“Since a young age, we’ve both dreamed of producing clothes and designing our own lines,” the co-founders explained. “But starting a brand with the intention of producing collection after collection didn’t seem right, so we asked ourselves how to make this lifelong dream come true with as little environmental impact as possible.”
Designed in Sweden’s capital and sewn by Malmö Industries in the south of the country, each item in the collection can be purchased individually or as a set for around $410 or 4,200 Swedish krona.
Circulose made its catwalk debut via Swedish cult favourite Jade Cropper in Copenhagen last summer.
Catch up with Renewcell’s newly appointed chief commercial officer, Tricia Carey, in either our Dialogue section here or in issue nine of Inside Denim magazine.
A lookbook image celebrating Benim Denim’s “funeral”. Credit: Isak Berglund Mattsson-Mård.
