Have you ever wondered how they get those 3D creases on your jeans?
They look so natural and so perfectly placed (well, if done correctly). Well, chances are in the premium game they are able to execute on the wrinkles with the help of technology. The pants are usually dipped in a resin based chemical to prep the jeans for a permanent crease. Then they are applied to a machine and you can let your imagination run wild with the # and placement of the creases. The legs bend, rotate and flip the pants so the technician can execute the wash concept. These machines aren’t cheap and not the only way to make these creases on your pants. But they are relatively newer innovations that have allowed for the more recent trend from hand drawn (flat) whiskers to 3d creases. Watch below for a glimpse of how it might go down… Excuse the cheesy video.
Have you ever heard the saying, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover”? According to wikipedia this English Idiom is a metaphorical phrase which means “you shouldn’t prejudge the worth or value of something, by its outward appearance alone”.[1] The same holds true for denim. We don’t judge a denim by it’s raw state, because we don’t know how it is going to wash down. This also means, we are constantly testing and conduct a ton of fabric tests.
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In raw form and at first glance the denim fabrics looks somewhat similar. Then once you start putting the fabric through some wash processes the character of that particular denim fabric starts to show. I guess you can think of it like you get to know the denim fabric the more you spend time with it. The first thing we do after we sample a fabric is start testing on it. We might test the fabric with a few more simple processes first and then test more processes if we like what we see. Because each fabric is unique in character in its construction, content, weight, die, finish, etc… it’s very interesting to see how the fabric washes down. We wash the denim fabric with heavy stone washes, apply some gentle hand sanding, spray some potassium to highlight areas, grind the surfaces, etc. until we get a look we are happy with. Then it’s a matter of adjusting for shrinkages in the wash process, making sure the fit is perfect, choosing a thread color combination, adding accent details and executing on the product. Usually, the better fabrics allow for a wider range of washes.
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Because each jean is crafted by hand, no two jeans will exactly be the same. Once you find a favorite pair of jeans that is a perfect match to you, it’s a pretty good feeling…
(Look inside your jeans at the fabric contents and it will most likely see it say 100% cotton or 98% cotton/ 2% Spandex).
It’s been a tumultuous year with cotton prices rising to peak levels. This rise in cotton price has impacted the market and you (the consumer) in many ways. For one, you’re probably seeing higher prices at the stores as these fabrics costs cannot all completely be absorbed by the manufacturer. Another result is that domestic (Made in USA) production of cotton based clothing will decrease. While there are some conspiracy theories on the cause of the sharp rise in prices, I won’t go into them. In general it has been attributed to bad weather causing weak cotton harvests to conspiracy theories.
Below you can see how dramatic the increase in cotton has been.
So you’ve seen how the fabric is spread (post here). The next step is the “cutting” stage in denim manufacturing. In this post, we will show you a glimpse at the steps taken to cut the denim fabric into pieces which are then sewn together to construct a pair of jeans. It takes about 15 pieces of denim to construct a pair of jeans.
So these are the patterns used by the professionals who cut the denim fabric. A 1/4″ here… A 1/4″ there… these patterns are constantly tweaked for every style to get the perfect fit. Every single style of jeans has its own unique pattern.
Each jean consists of about 15 pieces of denim sewn together. Here you see a bundle of all the cut pieces necessary to complete a pair.
Here are the legs of the jeans. These have been separated and ready to be printed with the signature NAEM MADE IN LA.
These are the waistbands. You saw in our previous post (post here) of how we print our waistbands and explanation of our men’s sizing convention (post here) for NAEM jeans.
The SUPPORT DOMESTIC PRODUCTION pocket lining… ready to go.
So unless you are in the manufacturing end of the denim industry you probably have not ever seen how a denim roll is shipped to the manufacturer. In this post, I will attempt to provide a raw behind the scenes glimpse in the processes that take place with the denim roll. If you aren’t a denim geek or denimhead your interest level may vary… But so what! WE LOVE DENIM. It’s kind of what we do…
Fabric. We stocked.
A normal denim roll measures about 58″ in width. See $1 Dollar Bill for reference.
Selvage fabric is much shorter and about 30″ in width. We’ll save the “selvage” topic for another post!
Here is the side view of a denim roll.
The rolls are spread on long tables.
Here is side view of denim spread on table.
The denim rolls are spread using machines such as this.
The next step in the process after the fabric is spread on the tables is cutting. We’ll save this for another post as well.
