Indigo has been in use as a blue colorant for thousands of years as a natural dye, which was produced from the Indigophera plant in India and China and with woad in Europe. Indigo cultivation was introduced in the Americas in the 18th century, first in the West Indies and then in South Carolina. Indigo has throughout history been the colorant most in demand and current production levels are reported to be around 17,000 tons per year. Indigo was employed as a blue dye for wool primarily, ...Read More

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Pocketing material is used in most trousers including denim jeans. It comes in various qualities going from 100% cotton to nlyon and polyester pocketing.  Normally denim jeans use white, cream or similar lighter shades of different qualities of  pocketing fabrics . But what pocketing do you use if you are creating a vintage jeans and want your pocketing material to completely align with the looks of the jeans ? You want to show that your pocketing is as aged as your jeans ? Normal ...Read More

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The wave of upscale jeans started in 2003 when a large number of national and international players descended upon Los Angeles and it became the centre of the denim growth story and  home to master denim technicians . Here is a series of some very interesting videos on the denim business – “Dirty Denim”- in L.A. The documentary created by Douglas Keeve is web exclusive and runs in 4 parts .Why the documentary has been named Dirty denim ? – Probably because of the stealing and ...Read More

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Have some spare old jeans which you can dispense with ? Go to any Gap store and return your old jeans and get 30% off denim purchases at (selected) Gap stores till March 14th. Initiated by the Cotton Incorporated , the Cotton: From Blue to Green Project takes your old jeans and converts them into Ultra touch Natural Cotton Fibre Insulation for communities in need. The first From Blue To Green denim drive in 2006 collected 14,566 denim pieces across the US, more than double the anticipated ...Read More

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Here is a video – a little too hot- for the  Acne Jeans A/W 2010 denim collection . Here is another video – “Behind the scenes at the AW 2010 Presentation” Behind the scenes at the AW/10 Presentation from Acne Studios on Vimeo.   Acne Jeans is a Swedish denim jeans  manufacturer and part of the Stockholm-based design firm "Ambition to Create Novel Expressions" (ACNE). Acne is a Swedish group of companies founded in 1996 in Stockholm. The denim offshoot ...Read More

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Denim Fabric has been produced in the United States since the 1830’s. The denim twill weave results in high strength and durability. For those reasons denim has been used for centuries in garments worn by sailors, farmers, cowboys and laborers of all types. Denim Industry In US Till 1960s The Indigo-dyed denim produced in the U.S until the 1960’s was possibly the least fashionable of apparel fabrics. Since denim was primarily found in garments for manual laborers, it was widely viewed as ...Read More

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Update: As pointed out by Adriana of Deniminstitute  in comments , the oldest pair of jeans is actually from the 1880s and Levi’s bought it at USD 46,532/- . Thanks Adriana Just came across this interesting video on youtube regarding the oldest jeans available – a jeans belonging to the year 1890. Levi’s wanted to reclaim their jeans and bought it in 1997 at USD 25000/- . I am sure it would worth much more now.. So, the lesson is – don’t throw away your old jeans ! PS: ...Read More

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Here are some typical denim grey fabric constructions Weave: twill 3/1 Z 3/1 Denim Fabric Constructions Warp(ends/cm) Weft(ends/cm) Warp Tex Weft Tex Weave 24 16 7 84 6 98 3/1 25 16 7 84 6 98   24 16 7 84 5.5 107   20.8 15.5 7.4 80 6 98   27 19 7.5 78 6.7 88   24 17 7 84 6 98   23 15 11 8.5 11.8 50   23 16.5 7 84 7 ...Read More

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This is  guest post by Harry Mercer Latent defects are ones that are not apparent in finished denim fabrics, but will appear after garment laundering. They are usually a result of procedures in denim sizing, dyeing and finishing that interfere with garment processing or cause spots, holes or streaks in garments. The most well-known is garment seam twist which results from incorrect skew adjustment. Holes : These result from weak places in the fabric, often where knots are in the fabric ...Read More

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This is a guest post by Harry Mercer. His brief bio is given below the post. Dyeing of denim yarns and fabrics with sulfur black can present a number of problems that affect fabric profit margins as well as the quality and performance of black jeans. Problems include : Dye waste (normally 50% or more in washing after dyeing Color variation after garment laundering Lower weaving efficiencies with black yarns Contact dermatitis etc. All of these problems were solved in the past, unfortunately ...Read More

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