What is the Future of Denim?

Lee jeans is aiming to become a sustainable denim brand – but is the sustainable manufacturing of denim really the way of the future?

Jeans have always been a closet staple - even since their origin as workwear thought-up by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis during the American gold rush. But, for as long as jeans have been around, they’ve never been sustainable.

For proof, you can look to the overwhelming statistics about not only denim, but the devastations caused by the fashion industry as a whole.

Denim is one of the most polluting fabrics produced in fashion. The UN reports that it takes around 7,500 liters of water to make just one pair of jeans. To give you a better picture of what that looks like, it’s equivalent to the average amount of water a single person drinks over a period of seven years. And in just one year, 2.7 billion meters of denim are manufactured, according to Fashion Revolution – at 7,500 liters per pair of jeans.

With more than one billion people lacking access to clean water, as stated by MUD jeans, your concern, looking at these numbers, is justified.

Let’s not forget about the fashion industry being the second most polluting in the world, next to oil. As an industry, the UN says that the manufacturing of fashion goods produces 20 per cent of global wastewater – which is 93 billion cubic meters of water each year. What feels like the scariest fact of all, is that as reported by The World Bank, 20 per cent of all global pollution comes from the fashion industry.

It’s all too clear that denim is one of the worst offenders in the fashion – which as an industry is massively damaging to the environment. As fashion wakes up to threats of climate change, we’ve learned that we cannotcontinue this way. But we’re guessing you’re not about to swear off jeans. So what then, will be the future of denim?

This is where brands like Lee Jeans come in. No, it’s not the only denim brand to make moves toward becoming more sustainable – there are actually dozens of smaller, contemporary labels whose sole focus is to make jeans both ethical and sustainable. But what makes Lee different, and in a way more essential to change, is that it’s a pre-established company with a massive following built up through over 120 years of business.

On its website, Lee writes, “We've partnered with Italy's most eco-friendly denim mill, Candiani Mill, to produce a truly modern and sustainable range of jeans. Using 30% less energy, 70% fewer chemicals and 50% less water, the selvedge denim used in this innovative collection makes for our greenest pair of jeans yet.”

Despite the fact that as of right now Lee has officially only listed 11 pairs of sustainable jeans, Khabi Mirza, co-founder of Fabric PR, which represents Lee, says that the brand has set a goal of reaching 100 per cent sustainability by 2021 – this may seem like a far stretch with just one year to completely upend it’s established manufacturing methods, but it’s absolutely necessary.

Violet Wood, 18, a Fashion Journalism student at the London College of Fashion says, “brands at the moment have very little option but to become more sustainable. Not just because of the inevitability of climate change, but also through the media and how much people are focused on sustainability.”

However, South African born Mia Williams, founder and creative director of Madseventies Vintage, says that she believes the future of jeans will be recycled denim – to which Wood doesn’t necessarily disagree. Williams explains, “I have always bought vintage Levi and Lee Jeans – and there’s something about a worn pair of classic denim. I think reworked denim has become a very serious trend and you can see it everywhere – in store and on the runway.”

At Copenhagen International Fashion Fair (CIFF) designers Duran Lantink and Bethany Williams are actually set to debut new denim collections that use rejuvenated deadstock fabrics from Lee. So not only has Lee set an impressive sustainability goal, but it’s also taking initiative to drive change in the industry by collaborating with creatives to recycle and rework its materials. This is the future that Williams predicts.

However, MUD jeans – one of those solely sustainable denim brands mentioned before – says that less than one per cent of all material used is actually being recycled and reworked.

The undeniable truth of the matter is, in the words of Wood, “from what you eat to what you wear, everything has an environmental impact.”

Mintel reports that jeans are the second most purchased type of clothing in the UK. Though, as brands begin to focus in on issues regarding sustainability, consumers are expressing their concerns about the industry, with 30 per cent actually most likely to buy fashion items from somewhere that has sustainable fashion ranges.

With one year left to reach its 100 per cent sustainability goal, WWD said that at CIFF Lee has plans to unveil a responsible fabric collection called the Indigood project using a foam-dyeing technique that doesn’t even use water and uses significantly less chemicals.

It was in 2015 that WGSN released a trend report which marked a rise in demand for sustainable denim – 5 years later, denim brands like Lee jeans are making major changes by aiming to achive 100 per cent sustainability as soon as 2021, by using new technologies and reworked materials.

Jeans always have been, and always will be, a closet staple – they’re not going away. Just as so, sustainable change right now is crucial. Like Williams says, “We all realise the seriousness of climate change and the harm fashion has done to our planet. So, it’s good to see brands stepping up how they move forward in their businesses [and] being more fashion conscious.”