The Sustainable Denim You’ll Want To Know About From Reformation, Arket And More

Jeans are, environmentally speaking, a nightmare. It can take up to 1,800 gallons of water to make a single pair and a lot end up in landfill. That's why the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) has launched its Jeans Redesign Guidelines, asking brands to sign up to ensure they're producing jeans in the most sustainable, ethical way possible. And it seems to have made a difference. Where once, options were limited, now some of this planet-friendly denim is actually even more alluring than anything else.

Tommy Hilfiger recently partnered with EMF to design a denim collection with circular principles at its core - not only are the jeans 100% organic cotton, but the buttons are detachable and the metal rivets have been replaced with bar tracks - and now Reformation has patterned with FibreTrace, an Australian tech company that is a real mover and shaker in the field of traceability, to make its most transparent jeans yet.

The denim collection of four pairs of jeans, one pair of shorts and one jacket is 'farm to butt', meaning that customers will be able to scan a tag that will allow them to view the garment's entire lifecycle, from fibre to production to finished product. FibreTrace's technology works by embedding scannable, luminescent pigments into the fabric during the cleaning process - cool right? - which then means that data from each step of the supply chain is captured in a unique 'passport'. The cotton itself is Good Earth Cotton, which is grown on the world’s first climate-positive farm in Australia, absorbing more carbon than it releases and therefore reducing carbon emissions in the atmosphere.

Arket's new patchwork capsule collection, meanwhile, is made entirely with post-consumer denim. Made using vintage fabrics sourced through the brand's recycling program with I , the collection is a homage to denim's history as a durable, workman's fabric that would have been carefully mended and patched to extend its lifespan. Each reclaimed garment was washed and sorted before being cut up into patches, sewn into large sheets of fabric and then eventually turned into jackets, straight-leg jeans, roomy tote bags and even a cushion cover.

Sustainable denim brands have seen a big spike in interest over recent years, and it's about time too. ‘The fashion industry is one of the largest polluting industries in the world, with jean production at the forefront of this phenomena,’ says Jordan Nodarse, the founder and creative director of LA-based denim brand Boyish, which offers environmentally-conscious denim in styles that also promise to ‘make your booty look amazing’. ‘A standard jean can use up to 8000 litres of water to make just one pair; 60 per cent of that water consumption is needed for the fiber and fabric production, and 30 per cent is used to launder the denim to look worn.’

‘I will never forget visiting a denim factory in Bangladesh in 2015 - they were producing 3 million pairs of jeans a month,’ adds Eco-Age co-founder Livia Firth. ‘Let that sink in… That’s just one factory in the world but imagine how many jeans are produced worldwide. This is a grim reality.’

There’s another reality check that’s necessary if you are aiming to shop more consciously. Move away from thinking of denim (or anything!) as a seasonal purchase. A great pair of jeans only gets better with age.

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