Sustainable denim brand Triarchy has rolled out its first collection made using WTRLSS digital dyeing technology, which is estimated to use 99.9 percent less water in dyeing and finishing than conventional methods.
Triarchy’s line using WTRLSS technology includes five pieces across three colorways, including Cowhide, a photographic hide pattern rendered across a jean and jacket—a design the company said would have been nearly impossible using traditional dyeing methods.
Triarchy said it plans to move all of its denim production to WTRLSS technology going forward.
Conventional denim dyeing usually entails rope-dyeing yarn through indigo baths, then finishing the material across a sequence of wet and dry stages that include washing, bleaching, sanding and rinsing. The multi-step process can take several weeks to complete, and it accounts for most of the denim industry’s manufacturing water use, chemical load and lead time sit. According to Triarchy, one pair of jeans can take around 100 bottles of water or roughly 75 liters to dye and finish.
WTRLSS uses a digital dyeing process that bonds color into the fiber itself in a single pass with no pre-treatment or wash-off, making it more lasting than digital printing, which adheres color to only the surface of fabric. The process uses a machine powered by proprietary software using an indigo replacement developed specifically for denim fabric. Each wash style, such as vintage fading or worn-in details, is digitally designed and dyed directly into flat pattern pieces before they’re cut and sewn.
WTRLSS uses chemistry called MultiActiv, which was developed by Swiss-French scientist Dr. Mickaël Mheidle after three decades of work in bioscience and digital textile coloration. The WTRLSS brand was introduced just a couple of months ago as the next evolution of Lab Denim, the biotech company that developed MultiActiv.
Triarchy’s jeans line is the first collection to hit the market using WTRLSS technology, and the company also has a partnership for a commercial pilot with Bangladeshi clothing manufacturer Ha-Meem Group, which produces jeans for Levi’s, Gap, H&M and Zara, among other brands.
“From the start, we set out to create a fundamentally cleaner and more efficient way to make denim. This collection with Triarchy brings that ambition to life, turning our technology into finished products that consumers can buy, wear and experience for themselves,” said Dustin White, co-founder and CEO of WTRLSS. “We’re incredibly proud to be working with Triarchy as our first brand partner. Today is not only an important milestone for WTRLSS, but an exciting first step forward for what the future of denim could look like.”
Along with reducing water usage for dyeing and finishing from 75 liters to roughly two tablespoons, WTRLSS estimates that its technology also cuts energy use by up to 90 percent versus conventional methods. The only additional water usage for this collection comes in a single rinse wash given by Triarchy before the finished product ships so that the consumer doesn’t have to wash before wearing.
Taubenfligel said WTRLSS’s digital dyeing technology not only improves the sustainability of denim, but it also makes difficult-to-execute patterns such as the cowhide look possible. And because an undyed fabric can become any wash, Triarchy no longer has to commit to color months in advance, and fabric minimums no longer dictate the amount of product a brand must make. That creates opportunities to produce closer to demand rather than ahead of it, reducing waste, while also redefining manufacturing facility choices based on proximity to customers rather than access to water.
“Our inaugural collection with WTRLSS was made to prove that detailed vintage washes don’t have to rely on harsh chemicals and huge amounts of water. Washes like these are traditionally the most resource-hungry thing you can do to a pair of jeans, and I wanted to make exactly those without any of that environmental cost,” Taubenfligel said. “We also scanned a cowhide and dyed it onto the same fabric as the indigo and the black. If you can do all three from one roll, you can make a whole collection from one fabric, and that is a game changer not only at the design level, but at a systems level.”
Triarchy stopped using conventional methods for denim production in 2016, halting production for 18 months before relaunching in 2018 with a rebuilt system that produced the first plastic-free stretch denim in 2022. Taubenfligel said this partnership with WTRLSS has allowed Triarchy to expand its commitment to sustainability, while also pushing creative boundaries in terms of design.
“The most exciting technologies are the ones that change what’s possible, and when what’s possible changes, our responsibility changes with it. WTRLSS has fundamentally reimagined how denim can be made, and Triarchy saw an opportunity to bring that technology out of development and into production,” Taubenfligel said. “Being the first brand to launch a collection with WTRLSS is about demonstrating what happens when innovation moves from possibility to reality. Together we are opening the door for an entirely new way of making denim.”