Our Materials
We only use 100% recycled materials from old clothes. Even our buttons come from excess milk production. We know all of our partners, from the spinner to the tailor.
Our Recycled Yarns
All of the yarns that we use to make our fabrics are 100% recycled. They are made from old textiles sorted at collection points and then sent to our mills for shredding and being re-spun into “new” recycled yarn.
We work with two mills, one in France and the other in Spain. They have developed different techniques to recover and manufacture yarn. French yarns are spun using the carded process, our Spanish spinner uses the open-end technique. Each technique has its advantages and constraints. Diversity allows us to make our selection according to the fabric we want to obtain.
No new dyes! An advantage of using these recycled materials is that there is a large choice of colors. The mills sort and then manually recreate the desired colors from textiles they have recovered. No new dye is added to make these beautiful colors.
Our Fabrics
All our fabrics are made by craftsmen near Castres, in the south of France. The region has a long tradition of manufacturing fabrics, thanks largely to its water, which was considered ideal for the washing of wool. Today only a few craftsmen retain the know-how acquired by those previous generations.
Our fabrics are woven using the traditional warp and weft technique (the one used by our grandparents on their looms). Warping, weaving and ennoblement: it is the rich expertise in these three trades that allows us to obtain the high quality fabric that our LATER… clothes are made of.
We went to visit our weaver in person. Together we took time to choose the fabrics best suited to our needs, considering existing stocks and constraints. This collaboration is essential for him and for us: we must first understand his job, measure the range of possibilities, present our ideas, and together find the best solutions. More than just a supply chain necessity, these collaborations are at the very heart of the LATER… project.
Our Buttons: Natural & Biodegradable
They are made from milk ! More precisely from casein: a milk protein that is processed to obtain Galalith. Harder than horn, shinier than bone and smoother than ivory, galalith, also called milk stone, was one of the first synthetic materials, like bakelite. It is a biodegradable, anti-allergic and anti-static polymer.
Our supplier from Lyon, recovers surplus milk production in Ireland and then manufactures the buttons in Italy.
