Bamboo fibre-made garments test Indian waters

07 Jul '14

2 min read

Garments made from an unconventional bamboo fibre are slowly but surely trying to make their presence felt in the Indian consumers mind.

“Currently fashion and International sports brands like Zara and Reebok have already launched garment products made from bamboo fibre, while adidas is testing samples”, Sachin Doshi – Director of Doshi Group and Indian representative of Shanghai Tenbro Bamboo Textile Co. Ltd, which manufactures bamboo fibres, tells fibre2fashion.

Bamboo fibres which are also regenerated fibres can be basically compared with viscose fibres as the source of raw material is nearly the same. Bamboo fiber is made of bamboo pulp and viscose is made of wood or eucalyptus pulp. However, while bamboo trees can be grown back in two years, it takes around 20 years for a normal or eucalyptus tree to reach its full height.

When comparing water consumption with cotton, the water consumed by bamboo fibre at the farming stage is very much less then cotton or the same like other regenerated fibers. It takes between 7,000 to 20,000 liters of water depending on the region, climatic conditions, soil, etc to grow 1 kg of cotton fibre. On the other hand, regenerated fibres like Tencel, Viscose, Bamboo, Modal, etc need just between 300 and 500 liters of water.

Apart from helping in eco-conservation of water, products made from bamboo fibre have natural anti-odour & breathability properties, which makes them applicable for production of knitted under garments and sportswear and bed & bath products.

“We are supplying Tenbro fibres to major mills in India like Pallava Group, Trident, Welspun, etc, who in turn convert yarns for bed/bath products and garments, which are then exported to developed markets in Europe and US. We have also produced denim fabric samples made from Tenbro bamboo charcoal fibres and currently we are also doing research on making ladies garment fabrics by blending bamboo fibres and bamboo Modal”, he adds.

Explaining further, he says, “Our role is to aid research and development of textile and garment products made from bamboo fibre, which in turn will be put up before various apparel and home furnishings brands in India. This will directly help the textile mills who buy our fibres.”

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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