Aizome believes it has a solution for greenwashing in the textile industry.
The sustainable textile company known for its plant-based bedding is officially entering the apparel category with Second Skin, a sleepwear and loungewear capsule collection. Each garment in the line will come with its own Textile Health Facts label.
Aizome CEO Michel May said the labeling system, which mimics the nutrition facts labels on food and beverage products, provides transparency on the ingredients in their textiles.
“The textile industry has a massive greenwashing and trust problem,” he told Sourcing Journal. “Brands hide behind vague marketing buzzwords like ‘eco-friendly,’ ‘natural,’ or ‘sustainable’ while treating their actual chemical formulations like trade secrets. We created the Textile Health Facts label to establish an unarguable, data-driven transparency benchmark.”
The Textile Health Facts label is sewn directly onto Second Skin garments, detailing their material composition and certifications such as GOTS and Oeko-Tex. The collection, which includes a long-sleeve shirt, lounge pants, socks and a towel, is made of organic cotton and plant dyes, produced in small batches to prevent textile waste.
“(The label) shows exactly what went into the garment, proving that the item contains nothing but virgin organic cotton and pure medicinal plant matter,” May said.
Second Skin also uses sonochemistry—ultrasonic sound waves that permanently infuse the molecules of medicinal plants such as indigo and madder root, which also serve as fabric dyes, into the cotton. This allows Japan-based Aizome to sidestep synthetic chemical use on the garments.
“Even the wastewater from this process is so clean it is certified as a topical skincare asset,” May said.
The collection comes with legally registered FDA Class I Medical Device status. May said this ties into the company’s Wastecare process, which transforms the its textile wastewater into a skin-soothing serum in partnership with a Japanese pharmaceutical company. Like their bedding, Aizome designed Second Skin to appeal to those with skin sensitivity or conditions that can make conventionally produced fabrics uncomfortable to the touch.
Aizome will launch a crowd-funding campaign to fund the first Second Skin capsule collection, which has a target goal of $60,000. Consumers can back the project and purchase pieces through Aizome’s self-hosted crowdfunding platform, which allows them to bypass traditional retail markups and launch directly to customers. The company said they chose to go the crowdfunding route because it allows the company to avoid waste by producing only what’s demanded while also avoiding fast-scale pressure.
May said this approach fits Aizome’s needs as it expands into apparel, and he sees this introduction and the Textile Health Facts label as a natural extension of their bedding program.
“Natural fibers are completely stripped of their value if the industrial processing dyes utilized are toxic,” he said. “The environment your skin inhabits is a critical health factor. Our community is no longer just browsing for lifestyle garments; they are actively shopping for physical relief from chemical exposure and sleep-disrupting allergens. Through the Second Skin capsule and our Textile Health Facts label, we are establishing a continuous, wearable recovery environment that prioritizes total biological safety.”
