When something becomes fashionable and you’ve been doing it all along, it’s a bit bemusing. I’m not sure why but we have never shouted from the rooftops about our fabrics being recycled; but a large proportion of them are.

In many cases, the yarn is recycled by a company called Comistra in the Prato region of Italy, from ‘end of life’ garments and rags which are stripped from any hardware like zips and buttons, sorted by type and colour and washed and shredded by a mainly manual process. The disintegrated fabrics are then re-wound as yarn and then blended with others to create the required colours and textures.

The Prato region boasts a vast array of small firms, each specialising in one part of the process spinning, warping, weaving, dyeing, finishing, printing, or designing etc. One of these is Leomaster who have been making textiles since 1958 and are specialists in complex blended fabrics, particularly the mixing of cotton with recycled wool. The company is responsible for the fabric in this camel birdseye check jacket and the navy version too. The latter having a removable pettorina made from Alacantara, the luxurious feel and deceptively weighted 100% carbon neutral fabric used in fashion, aviation, the motor and home electronics industries.

Proof of the skill of the mill is also seen in this navy jacket with a striking burnt ochre check, the depth of the colours, the fine weave; it’s almost inconceivable that this isn’t its first life.

Somehow one has a misconception of recycled materials, we tend to think of them as dull and harsh, but look closely, touch and feel them, and wear them with as much pride as we create them.