Color without dye
In our district, color does not have to start from chemicals. We work with existing fibres — mainly from pre- and post-consumer wool garments — which already carry their original shade. Instead of dyeing from scratch, different tones of recycled fibre are selected, weighed and blended to reach the exact colour required. It’s essentially a recipe: you mix fibre shades the way a colourist mixes pigments on a palette, until the target tone is stable and repeatable at scale.
This method allows us to create a wide colour range while avoiding a conventional dye bath. No new dye stuff is added, and the process relies on mechanical work and know-how rather than chemical input. Over decades of practice in the Prato textile district, this approach has generated entire archives of tones that can be reproduced on request.
For alfa-fi, this is not an aesthetic shortcut. It’s an industrial decision: less chemistry, less water, less energy tied to coloration. Independent assessments of this type of no-dye colour system in the Prato area have shown significant reductions in dyestuffs, auxiliary chemicals, water use, CO₂ emissions and energy consumption over a one-year span, precisely because you are working with colour that already exists.
From reclaimed fibre to new fabric
Before fibres can be reused, garments and production leftovers are sorted by composition and by colour. This is specialist work: materials are identified by touch and experience, and anything that could contaminate the new yarn, labels, zippers, linings, non-wool stitching, elastic parts, is removed by hand.
After that, textiles are mechanically opened back into fibre through shredding.
No chemical dissolution: just controlled mechanical processing and a small amount of water. The blended fibre is then carded, spun into new yarn, warped and woven again, and finally finished to meet the performance standards required for apparel.
The result is a fabric with a second life, but first-quality handfeel. This circular approach is part of the culture of our territory. Prato has built an industrial ecosystem capable of recovering material, reworking it and bringing it back to the market as a high-end textile, not as downcycled waste.
Why this matters
For alfa-fi, working this way means:
Resource respect. We extend the life of fibres that already exist instead of relying only on virgin input. This keeps materials in circulation and reduces pressure on raw resources.
Lower impact finishing. By achieving colour through fibre selection and blending, we significantly reduce the need for new dyes, auxiliary chemicals, excess water and energy normally associated with conventional dyeing.
Traceable process. Each batch is built intentionally: where the material comes from, how it was cleaned, how the shade was created, how the yarn was spun. This lets us document not just the final fabric, but the path that led to it.
This is our idea of responsibility: design, manufacturing and colour development treated as one continuous process, industrial, local, measurable.
