Flax or linen, all about this environmentally friendly plant!
Flax is a plant grown in Europe and provides 80% of the production of flax for textiles.
And it gets even better: France is the world's largest producer of flax:
France is one of the largest producers! The wonderful thing about this natural fiber is that it requires no pesticides or fertilizers and is not genetically engineered. It also doesn't require much water to grow. You can now see why we love it so much! The fabric is created after a variety of natural and mechanical processes :
The cultivation of flax (sowing and growth) to the finished T-shirt in 11 steps :
1) The cultivation of flax.
Flax needs a temperate and humid climate. This climate is found in northern France: for example, in Normandy and Seine et Marne.
2) The seeding of the flax
The planting of flax takes place between March and April. To obtain high quality flax, a six-year crop rotation must be maintained between each flax crop. The plant rises for about 100 days, after which time the flowering period begins.
3) The flowering period of flax
Flax blooms only for a few hours, because the flowers are short-lived. It is a very beautiful blue flower, which has a magical effect. At this time, the flax reaches its maximum size.
4) The uprooting
To better preserve the fiber, the flax farmer uproots the fibers from the soil. This step occurs 5 weeks after flowering, often in July. The flax is ready for grubbing when a yellowing is noticeable on the entire stalk. The grubbed stalks are deposited in windrows on the ground.
5) Rousing
Rousing takes place between July and September. Under the influence of rain and sun, the flax begins to rouse: Microorganisms in the soil decompose the outer stems of the flax. The flax must be turned several times to allow even roasting.
6) The pruning
This is a mechanical process that does not require water and separates the fibers used for textiles from the flax straw.
7) The combing
The fibers are sorted and combed into a uniform ribbon of fibers of equal length and fineness. Combing requires experience and know-how from the people who perform it.
8) Spinning
Wet or dry spinning: Dry spinning is reserved for short fibers such as cotton. For linen, the wet spinning process used by our supplier Safilin is used: Before actual spinning, the combed fiber slivers are stretched and blended several times to obtain a uniform roving. The combed flax fibers are stretched and divided to achieve fineness, and twisted in 60° to 70° hot water to better divide the fibers and obtain a finer yarn. Then the final tension is applied. This process requires special machinery and a certain level of expertise.the roasting, the swinging, the combing, the spinning, the weaving or the knitting. After all these steps, garments made of linen are soft, light and durable thanks to the robust fiber.
9) Knitting
We have been using linen for our t-shirts since 2017. At that time, we revived the knitting of linen t-shirt stitches in France with our partner at Pau. Your t-shirt is knitted on old looms....
10) Post treatment or dyeing
Where other manufacturers bounce back and forth between knitting/dyeing and ready-to-wear: With our T-shirts, everything is done in one place. Cut and make-up Cut and make-up are also in the same place. And what if, last but not least, we told you that it is a biodegradable and therefore compostable fiber? Would you believe us?!
11) The cutting and assembly of the garment.
The cutting and assembly are done either in the atelier in Pau or in our own atelier in Bordeaux.
Ecological advantages of flax:
*Water saving :
Flax does not need to be irrigated to grow: the oceanic climate in the north of France is ideal for it to grow without water: For a single T-shirt you save 1800 l of water!
*CO2 fixation:
The cultivation of flax allows, by leaving the roots in the soil, to enrich and aerate the soil. The roots also fix the CO2 in the soil and retain an average of 3.7 tons of CO2 in the soil.
*Zero waste:
There is nothing that is lost, everything is exploitable from the plant: During the transformation of the fiber no waste is produced, everything can be used: flax seeds, flax oil, shives (the fragments of the straws) for horticultural mulching or as animal bedding. And even paper pulp with the short fibers.The thermoregulatory qualities of flax make it a good insulator used in the building industry to make flax wool and agglomerated panels.
Properties of flax :
* Antibacterial,
* Antifungal and
* Anti-allergic
* Thermoregulator (cool in summer, warm in winter).
* And finally the fiber is compostable at the end of life: We use Oekotex certified cotton yarn to assemble your t-shirt (instead of polyester usually). There is no label on your piece and it is therefore compostable at the end of its life. Don't wait another moment to buy your first linen top.
Below is a selection of our linen t-shirts:
