From Raw Flax To Shirt.

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From Raw Flax to Shirt.

Linen is our preferred material for our spring and summer shirts. No other natural material is more suitable for the warm months of the year. It keeps you cool and make you look great at the same time. Our linen shirts are made entirely in Europe - from raw flax to shirt. Learn more about the advantages and origins of our linen shirts!

Linen keeps you cool

No other fabric is better suited to absorb and exchange moisture with the surrounding air than linen. It is breathable, moisture-regulating, and therefore cools you down in summer. At the same time, it has an antibacterial effect on the skin, making it less prone to develop odor.

Linen fabrics are also particularly tear-resistant, which is why clothes made of linen are hard-wearing and durable. Stains are easy to remove. For this reason, linen doesn't have to be washed at a high temperature, like other fabrics, for effective cleaning. In addition, compared to many other types of fabric, linen fabrics are lint-free.

Low impact material

Flax is a raw material that is less susceptible to pests than cotton and uses considerably less water. Whenever possible we use organically grown flax that does not use any pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Yet, the supply of organic flax is still very limited on the world market. In fact only very small quantities of organic flax from Europe are currently available.

We have decided to prioritise the use of flax that is grown in Europe rather than in far-off places like China in order to keep the transport distances short - even though this means the flax we use is not always grown organically.

Our linen fabrics are made according to the Masters of Linen® Standard. It is an industry standard set up Europe's linen companies that seek to promote the ecological cultivation of flax and a stronger European supply chain. The standard does not allow the use of GMO seeds, avoids irrigation of the fields and promotes field retting instead of water retting that uses large amounts of water and causes pollution of the wastewater. It also demands that the linen yarn and the fabric are made in Europe.

Every linen shirt starts with flax

Flax is at the origin of all Linen shirts. Linum usitassimum is a narrow-leafed, erect and blooming plant with a blue flower that is planted between March and April. After 100 days the plant is about 1 m high and ready to bloom. The beautiful blue linen flower only lives for a few hours and transforms the landscape into a lake of blues and greens.

In July the plants are pulled and placed in bundles on the ground where the "retting" starts. This natural process detaches the fibrous skin from the wooden stem. To further help separate the fibers from the stem a mechanical process called "scutching" is used. It involves stretching, grinding and threshing the plant. The combing process kicks-off the next phase where the fiber is transformed into yarn at the spinning mill that will later be used to weave fabrics.

Raw material with a long tradition

The use of linen has a long history. Mummies were wrapped in linen cloth in ancient Egypt. From Greek and Roman antiquity to the European Middle Ages, linen was the material for clothing alongside wool. With the increasing industrialization in the 19th century, cotton became more important and linen was used less often. However, the fashion industry's interest in this material has grown in recent years because of its qualities.

While cotton is only rarely cultivated in Europe, about 80% of the world's used flax fibers are grown in Europe. In general, flax is still a niche fiber in the textile industry. Only 1 Million tons of flax are grown in 2021 according to Textile Exchange (compared to 24 Million tons of cotton). Only 0.5% of the world's flax production is organic.

European craftsmanship

In fact, the whole CARPASUS linen shirt is produced in Europe from raw material, to yarn, to fabric, to label, button and shirt. The flax used for our shirts is grown in France, Belgium and The Netherlands and processed by spinning mills in the Baltic, Hungary and Italy. The yarns are dyed and woven by our long-time weaving partner in Portugal near Porto. Only a few kilometers away the fabric is used to tailor our timeless and long-lasting linen shirts by our Portuguese shirt-maker.