Fashion
US researchers replace harmful chemicals with eco-friendly cottonseed
The process for harvesting cotton and creating fabric for textiles includes collecting the wispy cellulose fibres of the cotton boll, removing the cotton seeds interspersed in the fibres, spinning the cotton into yarn, weaving the yarn into fabric and then finishing the fabric with a variety of chemicals that alter its physical properties — for example, making it softer or wrinkle resistant.
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a sustainable method using cottonseed oil to finish cotton fabrics—offering a safer alternative to harmful chemicals like formaldehyde and PFAS.
These methods aim to make fabrics smooth and durable without compromising environmental or human health.
Graduate student Taylor Kanipe presented the findings at the ACS Fall 2025 meeting.
Formaldehyde-based resins have traditionally been used as a fabric finishing agent. The sticky resin easily binds to cotton’s cellulose fibres, forming chemical bridges to make the long cellulose fibres resistant to wrinkling or stretching. While formaldehyde is cheap, easy to use and highly reactive, at high concentrations it is considered a Class 1 carcinogen. Formaldehyde can also cause skin and respiratory irritation.?Fluorine-
To eliminate the need for formaldehyde-based resins and PFAS in cotton fabric finishing, a group led by Richard Venditti, a professor of forest biomaterials, paper science and engineering at NC State, set out to create a green alternative by chemically altering seed oil from the cotton plant itself. Drawing on previous research at NC State, Kanipe, Venditti and colleagues took advantage of specific chemical properties in cottonseed oil to insert epoxy groups along the long carbon chains that make up the oil molecules. The epoxide group allows epoxidised cottonseed oil (ECSO) molecules to create strong chemical bonds with the cellulose fibres in cotton fabric and with each other, forming a polymer and making the fabric hydrophobic. The epoxy groups also create oil molecule bridges between the cellulose fibres, making the fabric resistant to wrinkling.
In addition to fabric finishing, ECSO could provide a use for the cottonseed oil harvested along with the cotton fibers, making it as inexpensive, easy to use and effective as formaldehyde resins.
“Epoxidised vegetable oils have a range of applications,” Kanipe explains. “While native cottonseed oil lacks the reactivity of formaldehyde-based resins, this simple epoxidation process produces a safer, more user-friendly alternative for applications like durable press finishes.”
The researchers weighed and chemically analyzed the ECSO-treated fabric using a type of infrared spectroscopy to ensure the ECSO molecules had successfully bonded to the fabric’s surface. To evaluate the finished fabric’s water repellent qualities, the researchers used a high-speed camera to measure the contact angle at which water droplets would interact with the cotton surface. The larger the angle between the water droplet and the surface of the fabric, the greater the water resistance. Untreated fabric showed no contact angle (in other words, the water was fully absorbed into the fabric), while ECSO-treated fabric showed a contact angle of 125 degrees, indicating a significant increase in water-repelling ability.
Future studies will measure additional performance factors in ECSO-treated cotton fabric, including tear strength, durability and wrinkle resistance. The team’s goal is to create a process of treating cotton with an ECSO water emulsion, a green process that does not require hazardous finishing substances.
“If we can achieve our goal of changing the properties of the cotton fabric — making it anti-wrinkle, anti-staining and water-resistant — using a water-based process, we’ll have a green process for putting a bio-based material onto cotton as a replacement for formaldehyde- and PFAS-based finishes,” says Venditti.
This research was funded by Cotton Incorporated and an Agriculture and Food Research Initiative from the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)
Imports of knitted apparel and clothing accessories (Chapter **) were valued at $***.*** million in January ****, slightly lower than $***.*** million a year earlier. The imports of non-knitted apparel and clothing accessories (Chapter **) totalled $***.*** million, down *.** per cent from $***.*** million in January ****.
South Korea typically exports fabrics and textile materials while importing readymade garments. During January ****, exports of man-made filaments, strips and similar materials (Chapter **) were valued at $***.*** million, down *.** per cent from $***.*** million a year earlier. Exports of knitted or crocheted fabrics (Chapter **) reached $***.*** million, easing *.** per cent from $***.*** million.
The additional week in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, contributed approximately $37.0 million in consolidated net sales. On a comparable week basis, net sales grew 3.4 per cent. On a reported basis including the extra week in fiscal 2025, the US retail, international, and US wholesale segments grew 9.4 per cent, 10.2 per cent, and 3.4 per cent, respectively. US retail comparable net sales increased 4.7 per cent. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates used for translation in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, as compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, had a favourable effect on consolidated net sales of approximately $3.0 million, or 0.3 per cent.
Carter’s reported Q4 fiscal 2025 sales of $925.5 million, up 7.6 per cent, boosted by a $37 million extra week; on a comparable basis, sales rose 3.4 per cent.
Growth spanned US retail, international, and wholesale segments.
Operating income edged up to $84.7 million, though margin dipped to 9.2 per cent.
Full-year sales increased 1.9 per cent to $2.9 billion.
Operating income increased $1.5 million, or 1.8 per cent, to $84.7 million, compared to $83.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024. Operating margin decreased 50 basis points to 9.2 per cent, reflecting incremental tariff costs, investments in product mix and make, and higher performance-based compensation provisions, partially offset by higher pricing, lower corporate expenses, and an asset impairment charge in the prior year period.
“Carter’s delivered improved fourth quarter results with each of our business segments posting sales growth over last year. We see momentum building behind our products and demand creation initiatives, which have driven an improvement in the rate of traffic, new customer acquisition, higher realised pricing, and increased penetration of the best portions of our product assortments. All of this gives us confidence that our strategies are gaining traction,” said Douglas C Palladini, chief executive officer & president.
“2025 was a year of meaningful progress in stabilising our business while responding to significant new tariffs. We took actions to right-size our cost structure and we launched several important initiatives to improve the productivity of our merchandise assortments and store fleet. We also strengthened our balance sheet and liquidity with the successful refinancing of our long-term debt and a new asset-based revolving credit facility in place,” Palladini added.
Consolidated net sales increased $54.3 million, or 1.9 per cent, to $2.90 billion, compared to $2.84 billion in fiscal 2024, reflecting growth in our US retail and international segments that were partially offset by a decline in the US wholesale segment. The additional week in fiscal 2025, compared to fiscal 2024, contributed approximately $37.0 million in consolidated net sales. On a comparable week basis, net sales grew 0.6 per cent. On a reported basis including the extra week in fiscal 2025, the company’s US retail and international segments grew 3.5 per cent, and 6.3 per cent, respectively, while US wholesale net sales declined 2.0 per cent. US retail comparable net sales increased 1.4 per cent. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates used for translation in fiscal 2025, as compared to fiscal 2024, had an unfavourable effect on consolidated net sales of approximately $6.7 million, or 0.2 per cent, the company said in a press release.
“While we are encouraged by our progress, much work remains. Excluding the recent tariff developments, for 2026 we are planning growth in net sales as we build on the momentum of our product and demand creation strategies. We are also planning growth in operating income. We will remain focused and disciplined in our investments and overall spending and expect solid contributions from productivity initiatives. We believe the recent news regarding tariffs will be net positive for Carter’s, but it will take some time to fully understand the implications for our business and the broader marketplace. Our talented and dedicated teams and I are committed to returning Carter’s to long-term sustainable, profitable growth over time,” Palladini concluded.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)
The model will be fuelled by both domestic and foreign direct investment. The country’s tax-to-GDP ratio currently sits at the bottom level globally.
Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, Prime Minister’s Adviser Finance and Planning, recently outlined a comprehensive road map to overhaul the country’s economic framework, setting a target to raise the tax-GDP ratio to 15 per cent by 2035, while taking the nation forward on a path of investment-led growth.
A key pillar of this transition is a significant increase in internal resource mobilisation, he said.
A key pillar of this transition is a significant increase in internal resource mobilisation, he said.
“The previous consumption-led growth model was unsustainable and had left the country burdened by a mountain of debt accumulated particularly between 2009 and 2024,” he told a recent roundtable on the government’s priorities in the short-to-medium term.
The roundtable was organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and The Daily Star newspaper.
There is a need for a tax culture rooted in investment, production and employment, he was cited as saying by domestic media reports.
He identified several systemic maladies in the current revenue structure that require urgent reform.
The government intends to move from greenfield incentives (based on identity and influence) to performance-based subsidies (ex-post subsidies), he said, adding that this model, which proved successful in the garments sector, will reward actual results rather than potential.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
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