One of the highlights during my visit at the Kingpins NYC Show a few months ago was getting to know a new denim brand, HNST.
HNST (read honest) is a Belgian circular clothing brand that produces jeans for men and women that have nothing to hide.
With their jeans, HNST strives for the highest level of sustainability and circularity that is technically possible, without making compromises on quality and style.
Since the most sustainable material is the one that already exists, HNST starts by collecting pre-loved jeans. The jeans will be sorted and is given a second life, when the quality is still sufficient, through the social economy. The remainder is HNST’s raw material and will be shredded into recycled cotton fibers which are later used to create the HNST denim fabric. This fabric eventually exists out 56% recycled cotton, 23% Greek cotton and 21% Tencel. The whole production process, from shredding to confection, takes place in Europe.
Due to the right partnerships and innovative production techniques, HNST is able to, per pair of jeans, reduce its water consumption with 95% and decrease its carbon emissions with 76%, compared to industry standards. For those who are into numbers, a pair of conventional jeans requires on average 7000liters of water when an HNST jeans only needs 361liters. However, every liter is one too many. That is why HNST continues to learn and research in order to attain a higher percentage of recycled cotton, less carbon emissions and lower their remaining water consumption.
Check out their website here.
