Since the early 2000s, new jeans brands have entered the market to help tackle denim’s environmental impact – with no signs of innovation slowing down.
In March, Los Angeles-based luxury denim brand Agolde, owned by Citizens of Humanity, unveiled its spring collection in partnership with Lycra featuring a plant-based stretch fibre made from industrial corn within its regenerative cotton and eco-indigo dye mix.
Amy Williams, CEO of Citizens of Humanity, says that Agolde’s signature silhouettes – the high-rise, wide-leg Ren and straight-leg Harper – continue to be customer favourites since the change in materials. Meanwhile, Swedish, organic cotton brand Nudie Jeans, which published its annual sustainability report this month, offers free repairs, with on-site repair shops in its stores. Last year, the brand repaired 68,342 Nudie jeans.
And ELV Denim, which made its London Fashion Week debut earlier this year, is pioneering a new luxury model based on waste. All jeans are made from upcycled materials, which would have otherwise ended up in landfill.
ELV“Our jeans are designed with a generous seam allowance in order to be adaptable with the wearer’s body as they evolve,” founder and creative director Anna Foster tells the BBC. “We even had a client who, when she was pregnant, took out the seam allowance, put in a bit of elastic to be able to wear them all through her pregnancy. After she had the baby, bit by bit she put them back.”
The brand’s jeans are designed to be modular, so that if one part is damaged, the brand can replace that single part as opposed to the customer having to buy a new pair. Still a young brand – ELV Denim was launched in 2018 – Foster has high hopes. “My ambition is for the whole fashion industry, not just denim. I would like to see an industry that values craft and quality and individuality of style over profit and mass production.”