Nowadays, when it comes to eco-friendly treatments within the denim industry, there seems to be no shortage of innovative views, technological progression or the investments as witnessed by the attendees of last December’s AATCC Denim and Sustainability symposium. Instead, the difficulty lies in the power to implement the green solutions into the apparel market. Naturally, no long-lasting change happens over night. Reasons vary throughout the supply chain: from short term pricing issues to ...Read More

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The project “Planet Denim”  with the prestigious MA Menswear course at the Royal College of Art in London, challenged the students to focus on the design and finish of the iconic “5 pocket” denim jean and to develop new techniques for pattern making, construction and especially finish, which take into account the long-term impact the design would have on the environment. Thus the idea was to create “Denim jeans for a sustainable planet”. The project was hosted and instructed by ...Read More

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This is a guest post by Harry Mercer Product development is especially important in the denim market because of demands for novelty and performance, both on the fabric production side and from the garment processing side. There are 2 aspects to product development of fabrics. Product development is usually thought of as creating a product for the market with significantly different colors, appearances (flat, slubs), hands (soft, raspy) or performance (stretch, permanent press). The other ...Read More

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Arvind Mills –India – is scaling up its Organic Denim Production to meet increased demand . Organic denim is witnessing a surge in demand worldwide with big retailers like Walmart  focusing on the same. Wal Mart is rumored to be aiming to convert almost all of its denims to ‘Organic’  .  The organic denim usage was popularized by some Japanese brands and then Italian and LA brands picked it up – as we mentioned in a previous report. . Now with large retailers ...Read More

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  Making economic sense from environmental conciousness is not an easy task. Taking care of environment takes money, but if you can make more money than you spend, it makes great business sense. Kurabo Denim’s Earth Denim does precisely that.  Kurabo has ventured to contribute to reduction in Carbon Dioxide emissions by not burning its denim waste and instead recycling it back as a premium denim !   The Earth Denim is made in three steps: Textile wastes from Kurabo’s ...Read More

Tags: Japanese denim

Rope Dyeing is considered a superior dyeing technology where the dyeing uniformity achieved is better than other Indigo Dyeing technologies like Slasher Dyeing. However, Rope Dyeing is a also a more difficult dyeing technology. One needs to master its nitty gritties to get the best out of the system. I , recently came across a very well written article on Rope Dyeing and thought it appropriate to share here.  The article mentions in great details the technical points to be kept in ...Read More

Tags: Indigo Dyeing

Denim has always been greedily targeted by manufacturers/producers of fibres other than cotton simply for the reason that it is the highest selling clothing item in the world. There have been experiments to make denim from wool,silk,tencel and other fibres and each of them has had limited amount of success. We now have a new fibre seeking to enter the world of denim - The Alpaca Fiber . [caption id="attachment_468" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Paca blue denim"][/caption] The fiber ...Read More

Tags: denim developments, Denim Trends, paca blue denim

Japan Fashion Week recently concluded in Tokyo. Besides the usual show, there was an exhibition on the denim industry in Japan - Japan Blue. The highlight of this exhibiton was that the Japanese denim industry is working on various ways to make the entire Denim/Jeans manufacturing process as environment friendly as possible.Denim fabric manufacturer Nisshinbo is using discarded banana stocks in its fabrics .Manufacturer Nihonmenpu is producing items dyed with natural mulberry lavender.See the ...Read More

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Advanced Denim is a new concept based on two new sulphur dyes - introduced by Clariant last week in the Blue Zone fair. They mention that from a technology point of view, Advanced Denim offers fast-to-repetitive washing, good rubbing fastness and an easy application process. Environmentally, it features an ecological dyeing process (no hydros, less water consumption), denim that fulfills GOTS requirements, and wash-down bleaching without the need for hypochlorite (Aox free). Fashion ...Read More

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Samurai is a famous Japanese brand and known for its innovative jeans. One of their great jeans which came out last year was the 21oz denim… 21 oz??????? Yes, whole of 21 oz ! The S510XX21 model of Samurai ,with 21oz denim fabric made on Japanese wooden looms, has bettered their own previous record of 19oz denim. This is a truly amazing denim and inspite of being so heavy, it is soft in feel because of very coarse yarns used and unique weaving methods applied. Samurai, rightly calls it ...Read More

Tags: denim, heavy denim, samurai