Textile lifecycles

TAUKO’s award winning production concept is based on designing new lifecycles for fashion. We work with industrial textiles which are used as rental bedsheets for hotels and healthcare during their first lifecycle. The textiles enter our circular system at the end of their lives as bedsheets and begin the new lifecycle as the main materials of TAUKO collections.

For continuing the life of the textiles after being loved and cared for as TAUKO pieces, we take them back and bring them to yet another cycle of life as part of the Kinship-collection.

new lifecycles

Did you know that hotels and hospitals do not own the textiles they are using, but they are renting all the bedlinen for their needs? In each European city there is at least one textile rental company which provides the maintenance and care for the bedlinen we are sleeping in when we visit a hotel or are treated in a hospital. These long lasting and high quality textiles are produced for heavy maintenance and comfort. When the textiles can not be used as bedlinen anymore, the textile rental company removes the textiles from their first lifecycle. As there are hundreds of hotels, and millions of beds in every European city, the amount of bedsheets taken out of use every day is huge.

To rescue the high-quality textiles from being burned in massive amounts, we are collaborating with the textile rental companies in Finland and in Germany. Every year we are able to collect and reuse tons of textiles which would be down-cycled or in worst case, burned for energy. Millions and millions of tons of textiles are burned every year throughout Europe and our mission is to save as many as we can. The amount of rescued textiles equals to the amount of our collection production quantities

By designing a new lifecycle for the hotel and healthcare bedlinen, we are able to keep the textiles in circulation using very little or no energy producing less carbon oxide than burning the textiles would create. 95% of all TAUKO collections are made from old industrial textiles, bedsheets from Finnish and German facilities.

Extending the lifecycle of used TAUKO garments

Continuing the life of the loved and used TAUKO items adds another lifecycle to the textiles. Our mission is to keep the textiles in the circle as long as possible and for this, we have launched our Kinship collection in 2020. The pre-loved TAUKO pieces are sent back to us by our customers and reworked at the TAUKO studio for a new lifecycle.

We exchange, repair, resew and retreat the used garments to become part of the Kinship collection. With the help of our local network of craftsmanship we are able to create a kinship of clothes that connect one user to another.

The Kinship collection is created to set an example on continuing the life cycles of high quality design clothes. We believe that the most regenerating act for fashion is to keep the garments in the cycle as long as possible.

***

In March 2019 TAUKO was nominated as one of the five shortlisted candidates for winning the Sustainability makers -award by British Council. We were honoured to receive the award among a total of 80 design and fashion companies. Our mission is to raise awareness of how local industrial textiles can be reused for new textile lifecycles for fashion, and how we can change the textile industry into a circular economy.

All photos by Laura Oja