Selvedge & Sustainability

Denim is arguably today's most ubiquitous fabric, with examples in virtually every wardrobe. However, it started life as workwear - the rugged shuttle loomed indigo dyed cotton twill having been worn in Europe since the 1700's.

Normally the hallmark of decent denim - the selvedge edge on the outer seam of a pair of jeans.

This tough fabric unsurprisingly found popularity in the rough milieu of 19th century America. Famously in 1873 Levi Strauss began production of his riveted overalls, with the first 501 jeans (waist overalls) appearing in 1890.

After WWII denim made the leap from work to casual wear, experiencing a boom in popularity.

Unable to keep pace with demand, by the early 1980's the Big Three - Levi's, Lee & Wrangler - had all switched to wide loom production, selling their old shuttle looms for scrap. (Not sending them to Japan as denim folklore has it.)

Today almost all denim is produced this way -  on wide looms, capable of churning out enough cheap fabric to keep pace with demand, but giving an end result of vastly inferior quality.

The rise in the popularity of selvedge denim - driven by early Japanese brands like Evisu in the 90's - has gone some way to countering this. Today there are a plethora of selvedge denim brands out there, from Japan to America & Europe.

The American brands caught on rather late. In fact Levi's unleashed a raft of lawsuits in the 90's preventing Japanese labels from using their branding and arcuate.
As a company Levis realised their mistake - with their jeans filling bargain bins at $30 a pop customers must have got wind that quality and craftsmanship had somewhat fallen off.
This is where Levi's Vintage Clothing stepped in to redress the balance. Luckily they had kept a few of the old shuttle looms in a dusty corner of Cone Mills and today produce some of the nicest selvedge denim out there. (And being Levi's so they should.)

Lee and Wrangler also caught on and still produce high quality selvedge denim under Lee 101 & Wrangler Bluebell.

Hardly a month goes buy without a new brand launching. And the quality does vary. To say that all selvedge denim is good is misleading, just as not all non selvedge is bad. Just look at brands like Old Town as a case for the latter.

One of the most appealing aspects of decently made selvedge denim is that it will last for years. In short it's more sustainable - you don't have to repeatedly spend money on inferior jeans, putting yet more burden on cotton production, and exploiting low paid workers in some far flung sweat-shop churning out umpteen garments a day.

If you buy raw (which you should) you're doing the environment a favour too - some poor bloke then does not have to blast your jeans with a load of chemicals just to pre distress them. When did people get so lazy that they couldn't be bothered to break in their own clothing?

An indicator of selvedge denim's current popularity is that the big brands are getting in on the act. At the fashion trade show Bread & Butter in Berlin last month, several commercial labels were launching lines of selvedge denim for Spring / Summer '14. Whether the lines will last more than a few seasons I'm not sure.

Nudie have just launched a selvedge denim line for kids. As a brand they make a point of stressing sustainability and, to Nudie's immense credit, are very open about their production processes.

So the launch of a selvedge range for ankle biters came as something of a surprise.

I am reliably informed that children grow. There's no stopping them. Perhaps I'm being cynical, but all that beautiful selvedge denim, bought by wealthy parents with more money than sense, will probably get binned once the little blighters have out grown it. It might end up in a charity shop, or the most positive outcome - be passed down to a younger sibling. At 900DKK for a pair I hope the latter prevails.
To be fair to Nudie they have designed the jeans with waist tabs so the things can be let in and out as offspring grow.

Is that sustainable? In fact, with the explosion in popularity of selvedge denim as a whole I wonder if the mills still using old narrow looms can keep pace. After all, is that not why manufacturers switched to wide loom production in the first place?

I'm all for selvedge denim, in fact I love the stuff and would like to see more people wear it. Put simply it's higher quality and better for our planet. You don't need loads of pairs cluttering your wardrobe, just rotate a couple of jeans and they will last years.

Perhaps I'm generalising, but most folk tend to buy too many clothes and are nowhere near discerning enough in their purchases.
Selvedge denim may have a higher price point, but you'll buy less of it and be buying ethically - a principle it would do no harm to extend across your entire wardrobe.

For a brand like Nudie, the launch of children's selvedge denim line rather goes against this idea and against the sustainable principles they profess.

Then again in days of yore kids always wore selvedge denim and I'm sure ageing 30 something denim-heads will be tickled pink to clothe their spawn in selvedge denim.
Looking at the positives it might instil a love of the fabric in to a whole new generation and encourage parents to recycle their kids clothing, but this relies on said parents doing the right thing.

As an industry I suspect this might be the wrong way forward. I hope I'm wrong.

Have a look at Nudie's new kids range here.