Natural materials in clothing can be many different things: The cotton in your everyday jeans. The wool in one base layer. An evening dress in silk. Your grandmother's fur coat. All these materials are natural materials but very different ones. Natural materials can be great functional materials but they can also be very impractical. They can be produced sustainably, but they can also be major environmental culprits. However, natural materials have one thing in common: They are all biodegradable. 

Nature is circular

We design our clothes circularly from the drawing board. This means that we either use synthetic fibers that are recycled and recyclable, or we use natural materials that are naturally degradable. We never mix natural and synthetic materials because then they are neither recyclable nor biodegradable. We see the raw materials we use as borrowed from nature and it is our responsibility to ensure that they can be returned. The basic idea with circular design is that nothing should go to waste and when it comes to natural materials, millions of years of evolution have created a system where materials can be broken down and become new building blocks.

Houdini Menu

In 2016, we started a project to test the purity of our clothes made from natural materials. We let our base layer in wool is composted in a regular garden compost. The soil was then used to grow vegetables that ended up on the plates of a gourmet restaurant. From worn-out clothes to a fine dining experience. The goal was to show the beauty of circular design and to test whether our clothes would actually compost and leave only fertile soil behind. Read about the project Houdini Menu and see the movie.

What materials do we use?

At Houdini, we currently use two natural materials: Merino wool and Tencel™ Lyocell. These two materials have many advantages both in terms of performance and sustainability.

Merino wool: A fiber with magical properties

Merino wool is a material that has almost magical properties. It insulates extremely well on cold winter days but it also has a cool feel during the summer. Wool is also naturally antibacterial, which keeps the garment fresh longer than any other material. It also retains heat even when wet. These properties make merino wool the obvious base for sportswear in natural materials. Everything from deep-sea fishermen in the North Sea to 19th-century explorers can testify to the excellence of wool. The wool we use is always traceable and mulesing-free.

Tencel: Dress in the forest

Tencel™ Lyocell is a smooth and strong fiber made from cellulose, a natural chemical compound that makes up plants and trees. Tencel gives a cool feeling against the skin and breathes very well. It can also absorb moisture very well. At Houdini we use several different blends of merino wool and Tencel. It gives the wool a good fall, adds texture and acts as reinforcement in some material constructions. Tencel is produced in a very environmentally friendly way with FSC-labeled raw materials. The chemicals and water in production can be reused and over 99% circulates back into the system. Tencel™ Lyocell is produced in Lenzing, Austria and is marked with the EU Ecolabel.

Nature and technology are not enemies

The part of our collection that consists of natural fibers is growing with us, we don't want to talk about "back to nature". Fiber from natural materials is constantly being developed with the help of new technology, the new woolen fabrics are like nothing we have seen before. Everything from our thin, tightly woven Wool Shell to airy and fluffy Wooly Treemerino. We all need to question the old truths about wool and natural materials.

Are natural materials more environmentally friendly?

We wish we had a simple answer to that question, but it's not really possible to say anything in general. As long as natural materials are not mixed with synthetics, they are biodegradable, which means that they do not contribute to plastic pollution or microplastics in seas and lakes. If we factor in other environmental issues such as climate change, water use, chemicals, land use, acidification, eutrophication or biodiversity, the picture becomes more complex. Add in animal rights and working conditions and we have a jungle that is difficult to navigate even with the best of intentions. There can also be large differences between different producers of the same material. Read more about the environmental impact of our various materials in our sustainability report Planterary Boundaries Assessment, pages 49-55.

Natural materials are sometimes more environmentally friendly than synthetic materials and sometimes not, depending on what you look at. All materials have an environmental impact, especially if we count both raw materials, production, transport, use and waste. That's why we design our products to last as long as possible and offer services such as repairs, rental and second-hand sales. The point is that no matter what material we use, we must treat the resources carefully.

"Natural fibers are biodegradable as long as they are not mixed with synthetic materials or treated with harmful chemicals."

End-of-life solutions

Natural fibers are biodegradable as long as they are not mixed with synthetic materials or treated with harmful chemicals. All of our garments made from natural materials can be composted, but first you need to cut out details such as zippers, buttons and cords. If you have a good compost at home, shredded woolen clothes usually break down in about 6-12 months. That said, you can always return your worn out Houdini garments to us. The textiles can usually be reused for something before it is time to return to the earth. Wool can also be recycled, but the quality deteriorates with each recycling, in the same way as with paper.