Reformation is unveiling “Circular Denim” in its latest stride to clean up its denim act — and it is tapping manufacturing waste for the first time to do it. The jeans are also designed to be recycled and eligible for fiber-to-fiber recycling. The collection will be available beginning April 15 in select stores and online, ranging from to 8, including high-rise straight-leg jeans, pleated trousers, jean shorts, overalls,, and a denim dress.
Today, roughly 10 percent of Reformation’s product mix is denim, and the company hopes for its Circular Denim collection to pave the way for improvements across product lines.
Kathleen Talbot, Reformation’s chief sustainability officer and vice president of operations, said, “We launched Ref jeans for the first time in 2017. We are a few years into the category now, [but] we started it with the idea that it is the most common thing in our closet and the dirtiest. We knew we needed to tackle it. The circular denim partnership is really about building those relationships and showing that there is a better way.”
The jeans in the new collection are made from 20 percent recycled scrap cotton and 80 percent FibreTrace cotton. According to the company, all styles from this collection are 100 percent recyclable.
Reformation said that an estimated 12 percent of fibers are left on the factory floor. However, through the zero-waste production process with its partners, Circular Denim has a 27 percent lower carbon footprint and 89 percent reduction in water use than standard jeans.
Already, the company is partnering with a range of partners to realize its 2025 “climate positive” vision. These include FibreTrace (for tracing its cotton lines from fiber to product) and SuperCircle, a proof point of tech-enabled recycling at scale.
Reformation is partnering with Strom, a fully vertical manufacturer, and Bossa, a mill guided by zero waste principles for its denim innovation.
