BLUE CAST Ep10 - BLUEBLOOD - PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

BLUE CAST Ep10 - 

 This BLUE CAST Episode, Michael Kininmonth talks with Sally Deighton - Denim and Production Specialist based in the UK 

Salli Deighton, Industry veteran started her career with Wrangler jeans back in the early 90s. Her induction was in the plant in Falkirk run by a legend called Raymond Brown who was adamant no one should be designing jeans until they knew how to make them! 

Salli time at Wrangler, based in Calverton, a pit village in Nottingham. She worked on denim jackets, shirts and the tops line at Wrangler until the mid 90s developing products mainly in Turkey and Portugal. Shes worked for Lee and Easy jeans before having twin girls in 2000 and 9 months into motherhood she realised she needed a work / baby balance. 

 “When you love what you do for a living it has to be part of your life. Fortunately I had a call asking for a couple of tech packs and my freelance life began.”

Over the last 20 years, Salli has worked with some great companies and teams constantly learning and evolving her work.  She was hired by Arvind Mills in 2003 as they started Wrangler in India though a joint venture with VF where for the next 8 years she directed and supported the Indian teams. Shes developed the denim offer for many companies including Fat Face, F&F, Gas, Debenhams, ASOS and broke all sales records at M&S with the new women’s line .

Since 2006, Salli has spent a lot of time in Bangladesh, China, Turkey and key denim producing countries. Salli is currently consulting with Naveena Denim LTD NDL ensuring their collections are laundry friendly in every aspect and biodegradability and reuse is considered. It’s the first time Salli’s worked with a mill at this level. 

Her aim now is to close the loop by bringing denim finishing back to the UK. with an open, transparent hub processing smaller quantities of jeans close to home, re processing unsold stock and enabling us to clean and breathe new life into jeans which are heading for landfill. Providing such a resource for UK retail and enabling the next generation of talented denim developers to find new and better ways make jeans is the next, natural step as we transition to a better industry. 

https://www.instagram.com/SalliDenim/
https://www.instagram.com/Laundre_UK


Michael Kininmonth has spent the whole of his 45 years working life in textiles. He trained at University of Bolton in the UK. He has had a wide and varied career spanning fiber spinning through to garment production, woven and knits through to non-woven composites, apparel fabrics through to medical textiles. He joined the then only UK-based denim mill, Smith & Nephew, back in 1974. He is widely travelled and is the holder of several textile patents. He joined Courtaulds just after the launch of TENCEL, and still has the scars to prove it. He is now employed by Lenzing Fibers as Business Development Manager. His currently responsibilities are split between sustainability and denim projects. Michael lives in Nottingham in the UK along with his wife Julia, 2 children Alex and Olivia and the dog Eddy. 

BLUE CAST by TENCEL™ / CARVED IN BLUE®

A podcast series created by Michael Kininmonth and Tricia Carey from Lenzing’s TENCEL™ Denim team. Each month, they will host an in-depth talk with a special guest working in the industry or on the fringes of the denim community. Listen for discussions on sustainability, career trajectories, personal denim memories and more.

Graphics, recording and editing by Mohsin Sajid and Sadia Rafique from ENDRIME® for TENCEL™ / CARVED IN BLUE®.

Find us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @carvedinblue. And get in touch denim@lenzing.com

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