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Denim jeans are the great equaliser. They have transcended cultures and over the past century have won over the entire world. First seen as workwear and then as a rebellious symbol of American counterculture, jeans have finally settled into the role they were always destined to play: that of the comfortable, everyday staple we know and love. Yet the denim we know now is far removed from its’ origins, so much so that most offerings on sale today might be considered unworthy of the name.
Up until fifty years ago, almost all jeans were made of raw unwashed or naturally washed denim. But as denim grew more popular in America, demand soon outstripped the capacity of small weaving mills and mass production exploded on the scene. The natural tears and fades that used to mark denim with constant wear were soon replaced with pre-washed, chemically distressed jeans of a far flimsier character. Now, developing countries are quite literally unable to support the enormous amounts of environmental waste that’s arisen as a consequence of the growing appetite for a product that looks worn in.
The search
We were lucky to have a self proclaimed denim head amongst our own ranks in Tak, our operations manager. Not only is Tak in the know about all things denim, he also knew exactly where to find the best manufacturers in the world. He laughed when a few of us suggested we might need to make a trip to the US. After all, it seemed only natural (and consistent with our previous experiences searching for artisans) that the country with the closest cultural link to an item would also play host to the most skilled craftsmen. But the American market had long forgotten the traditional weaving required to make high end natural denim, and instead was oversaturated with low quality offerings.
Today, it is Japan that boasts the finest denim craftsmen in the world. Many grew up with a passion for the fabric that they had come to know when they first saw it on American GIs in the wake of the second world war. The Japanese cultural affinity for exquisitely made quality items safeguarded traditional denim weaving techniques, even as they disappeared from their natural home. And as consumers once more begin to search for proper denim, they are turning east rather than west.
The workshop
The city of Kojima, with its longstanding history of textile production, was the natural epicentre for Japanese denim production when it began to grow in the early to mid 20th century. Local craftsmen soon realised they could only achieve the look, weight and feel of denim in the vintage American style through traditional weaving techniques- mass production couldn’t convincingly achieve the same detail in stitching.
We didn’t need to look for long before we met the craftsmen who we knew we wanted to work with. Well-known globally for their impeccable Selvedge and naturally washed denim, our workshop is committed to traditional weaving techniques and contemporary design. The artisans we spoke to on the workshop floor are most passionate about their distinctive Selvedge denim.
Universally recognised as a marker of quality, Selvedge derives from ‘self-edge’ and refers to self-finished denim with a distinctive narrow, woven band on the edges of the fabric visible when jeans are cuffed or rolled up. It’s a method of weaving on a shuttle loom that prevents the fabric from unravelling through sealing the edge stitch on denim, offering an aesthetically pleasing clean finish to denim jeans. Selvedge denim construction requires shuttle looms which only make tightly woven fabrics in small batches, contributing to the overall high quality of the final result. It was only once we tried on a pair of their jeans for ourselves that we understood what Tak had been trying to tell us all along. That once you experience selvedge denim, there’s no going back to the pre-distressed chemically washed imitation.
