Bamboo Fabric Explained: What It Is and How It’s Really Made

This year marks 20 years since we started working with bamboo fabric. Two decades of sourcing, labelling, and talking honestly about textiles. And in that time, we've seen a lot of marketing language evolve, some of it helpful, some of it genuinely confusing.

Right now, there’s renewed discussion online about “mechanically processed bamboo” versus bamboo viscose. As one of the original bamboo fabric brands in Australia, we feel it’s important to explain the different processing methods clearly, because there’s a lot of misinformation out there.

Bamboo is a fascinating plant and one of the most sustainable resources on Earth. It holds a Guinness World Record as the fastest growing plant in the world, with some species shooting up to a metre a day and
reaching 30 metres tall (The BBC’s Wild China captured this in a stunning 24-hour time-lapse, well worth a watch.)

What makes bamboo so remarkable from a sustainability perspective is how little it asks of the planet. It grows organically without
pesticides, insecticides, or fertilisers, requires no irrigation, and involves no genetic modification. With over 1,400 species worldwide, it’s extraordinarily versatile, used as a food source, building material, shelter, and so much more. It also absorbs carbon dioxide and releases around 30% more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees. And unlike timber, which can take 30 to 40 years to mature, bamboo is ready to harvest in just five years, after which it continues to grow new shoots from its existing root system without needing to be replanted. Its deep roots also help prevent soil erosion, making it genuinely good for the land it grows on.

The fabric that comes from bamboo has some genuinely lovely qualities of its own. It’s soft, breathable, moisture-wicking, and
gentle on skin, which is why it’s become such a popular choice for everyday wear, activewear, and sleepwear.

So what is the process to turn bamboo stalks into bamboo fabric?

Bamboo is a plant. Fabric requires processing. This might sound obvious, but it’s the foundation of everything: bamboo clothing is not woven from bamboo stalks. To turn bamboo into wearable textile, the plant has to be processed into fibre first.

In theory, there are two fundamentally different ways to do this.

Mechanically processed bamboo is sometimes called “bamboo linen,” and the concept is similar to how flax becomes linen:

1.  Bamboo stalks are crushed
2. A process called retting uses bacteria or enzymes to break down the pectin that binds the fibre bundles together
3. The stalks are then broken and scutched, mechanically separating the fibres from the plant material
4. The fibres are combed to pull the long strands free for spinning
5. Those long fibres are then spun into yarn

The key thing about this process is that the cellulose is never dissolved or chemically regenerated; the fibre stays structurally intact throughout. In theory, it’s a more natural route from plant to fabric.

If it worked, the resulting fabric would be dense, textured, and structured, closer to linen or hemp than anything silky. It would
wrinkle more easily, feel more substantial, and behave very differently from the soft, drapey bamboo clothing most people know.

Here’s where the theory runs into a hard wall.

This mechanical process works beautifully for flax and hemp because those plants have naturally long bast fibres that separate cleanly from the plant matrix once retted. Bamboo simply doesn’t behave the same way. Its structure is fundamentally different:

• It has a much harder, more lignified cellular structure
• Its fibres are naturally short, not long and stable like flax
• It binds tightly with silica and other components that resist mechanical separation

Even when researchers have attempted mechanical extraction of bamboo fibres, the output is short fibre fragments, coarse texture, low yield, and poor spinning properties. You could theoretically make rope, matting, or industrial composites, but not soft, wearable clothing.

And here’s an important detail: even the academic experiments that have tried to demonstrate mechanical bamboo extraction have typically required significant chemical pre-treatments to make the fibres separable at all. Which means they’re not truly mechanical from the start.

This brings us to something we want to be clear about.

Over 20 years of working directly with mills and exploring alternative fibre options, we have repeatedly asked about mechanically processed bamboo, and we have never been able to source it at commercial scale.

Major supply-chain transparency frameworks, including CanopyStyle mill audits, the ZDHC Gateway (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals), and OEKO-TEX mill certification listings, all document bamboo viscose and lyocell producers. None document a mechanical bamboo fibre producer supplying the apparel industry. Global textile trade data tells the same story.

For a supply chain to genuinely exist, you need mills running the process consistently, economic viability, buyers purchasing the
fibre, and documented outputs going into garments. None of those conditions
exists for mechanically processed bamboo.

When brands claim they use mechanically processed bamboo, this almost always comes down to one of a few things: a misunderstanding of textile terminology, confusion with bamboo viscose or lyocell, loosely applied marketing language, or unverified supplier claims. Strong claims deserve strong evidence, and in this case, the evidence simply isn’t there.

If a garment feels silky, fluid, and drapey, it has not come from mechanical bamboo processing. A genuinely mechanically processed bamboo fabric would feel linen-like and structured, not soft.

This is how bamboo fabric is actually made, at scale, across the world.

The regeneration process works like this:

1. Bamboo is broken down into cellulose pulp
2. The cellulose is dissolved
3. It’s then regenerated (re-spun) into fibre

 This produces either bamboo viscose (the most common) or bamboo lyocell (a more closed-loop version of the same process).

The result is the bamboo fabric most of us know:

• Soft and silky smooth

• Beautifully drapey

• Breathable and moisture-wicking

• Gentle on skin

Our products are made from bamboo viscose. We state this clearly on our garment
labels and throughout our website.

We know this question comes up, and we want to answer it honestly.

The viscose process does involve chemical solvents, specifically sodium hydroxide and carbon disulphide. By the end of processing, these are broken down into salt and water. When the process is managed responsibly, it has minimal impact on the environment and workers’ health.

Our bamboo fibre is OEKO-TEX 100 certified, which means there are no traces of harmful chemicals in the finished fabric.

Is bamboo viscose perfect? No, and nothing is. But we think it’s a genuinely good choice, especially when compared to conventional
cotton (which is one of the most water and pesticide-intensive crops in the world) or polyester (which is plastic-based and sheds microfibres). And we believe the most sustainable garment is one you love and wear again and again, which is why everything we make is designed to be versatile, durable, and wearable for years.

You’ll see product names across our range like Bamboo Leggings, Bamboo Tank, and Bamboo Tee. That’s a product
shorthand, the same way you’d say “cotton tee” without specifying the exact weave structure.

But on every garment label, and in every fabric description on our website, we clearly state: Bamboo Viscose.

Under Australian Consumer Law, overseen by the ACCC, fibre composition must be truthful and descriptions must not mislead. Using “bamboo” in a product name while clearly stating “bamboo viscose” in the fibre composition is consistent with both standard industry practice and our own values.

If a brand states that their bamboo fabric has not undergone viscose or lyocell processing, then logically:

• The cellulose was never dissolved

• The fibre was never regenerated

• The fabric should feel more like linen or hessian, not silk

• The supply chain should be able to show documented mechanical extraction methods

• Independent verification should be available

 Transparency protects you as a consumer and it protects the integrity of sustainable textiles more broadly. If a claim sounds impressive but can’t be backed up with documentation, it’s worth asking why.

For twenty years, our approach has been simple: say what we can prove.

We don’t adopt claims because they’re fashionable, only when they’re supported by proper certification and documented standards. Integrity over hype has guided us from the beginning, and it still does.

If you'd like to learn more, read about our products, the benefits of bamboo fabric, and the fabric blends we use across our range.