Climate Positive Clothing

So here we are, 1 year on from the Kickstarter, where we raised enough funds to manufacture our own T-shirts made using seaweed fibre.  At that time it was really only the beginning of my knowledge of seaweed and all the incredible benefits it can bring to the world, whether that's through eating and drinking it, soaking up carbon, reducing methane, making plants grow like mad and the obvious; making clothes from it... 

Bladderwrack seaweed flourishes in nearby Welsh waters... Captured by Phill Boyd

Seaweed clothing brand

It still blows me a way that this natural resource, that is so readily available in incredibly vast amounts, is relatively untapped.  And on learning more of the ways in which it is cultivated and harvested, from all my investigations, it seems to be very sustainably and environmentally sound. 
 
So we do, really have a good chance here of learning from the past mistakes of using the earths resources (pillaging fossil fuels) in a truly sustainable fashion, which only benefits the ocean and its inhabitants, our human existence and the planet as a whole.  All this will help to achieve the ultimate goal of Inland Sea; to contribute and help to solve the climate crisis.

Call it synchronicity, luck, meant to be, but we feel the planets have aligned for our vision and overall mission to begin...  Seaweed found us and now we want to become the pioneering clothing brand to use seaweed in our clothing and help to promote this natural, miracle resource, to help save the world.

Carbon neutral clothing

As February 2022 rolls in, our cotton spinners, just up the road in Dukinfield, will receive over a tonne of seaweed fibre from our partners in Germany. The next part of the process is the most nerve wracking, as the spinners will begin to experiment with their (fully traceable) cotton to create the best blend for the first batch of fabric. This has never been completed in the UK before and here at Inland Sea we are very excited to help turn the page on (fast fashion/ unsustainable clothing or whatever you want to call it) and make history, starting a new chapter, using seaweed fibre in clothing.  

Once the cotton spinners have worked their magic, we will go about producing roughly 1 tonne of fabric, with a blend of 20% seaweed fibre and 80% Australian Cotton.  This will involve spinning the yarns to create the blend, we will then need to knit the yarns to create the final fabric. Once the fabric is knitted, we will send for the dyeing process, producing roughly 8 different colours.  We are trying to use natural and environmentally friendly dyes where possible, we will be documenting this process in greater detail.  Once the fabric is successfully dyed we are then ready for the design and sewing process, which is arguably the most exciting part!

We are anticipating the whole process to take 3-4 months, giving ourselves a deadline of May for completion of the first garments, which will all be T-shirts for this first phase. 

At this stage we want to thank our brand partners who have helped make this first phase come to light.  We will be announcing several very exciting brand collaborative designs over the coming weeks, all to raise awareness of the powers of seaweed and how we can all help to solve the climate crisis. 

Thanks as always for your support, feel free to spread the good news! 

Adam :)