20y Anniversary Natural Indigo Denim.
Photos: Julian Berman
Model: Josiah Dayoub
The second denim project we're releasing this year to celebrate our 20th anniversary may be the most ambitious offering in our brand's history. Development started back in 2021 when we were introduced to a beautiful, crunchy 15.4oz denim with lots of uneven texture and crosshatch patterning in the weave. After inquiring with the mill further about how the fabric was woven and what made it unique, we fell in love with it and decided to push forward with the project despite its high cost.
The denim is woven at the same small mill in Hiroshima that produced the Burkina Faso denim that we released earlier this year. It begins with an organic cotton from Turkey that is spun using a special process to create an unevenly twisted nep yarn. Unlike most denim which is dyed with synthetic or chemical indigo, these yarns are dyed using natural indigo sourced from India in a rope dyeing process that features twice the amount of dips than the average process. This creates a deep and distinct indigo blue, while still leaving the core of the yarn white.
The fabric weighs in at 15.4oz which is almost a full oz heavier than our flagship 100x/120x/220x denim, but the numbers don’t tell the full story. This natural indigo denim has much more texture and heft to it, resulting in a hand with a fair bit of crunch in its raw state. You’re gonna have to work to break this denim in, and as a result, we believe the fabric will yield high contrast wear over time. For those of you who were lucky enough to pick up a pair of our streaky 15y anniversary denim, this one is somewhat comparable in weight and rigidity while having a completely different hand (and hue). The result is a fabric with tons of character and unique texture, with the uneven shaped yarns creating more saturated indigo areas in contrast with other areas where the white weft is peeking through. The denim is finished off with a classic pale red selvedge ID ticker.
Because of the uniqueness of the weave process, the quality of the cotton, and the usage of natural indigo, this is the most expensive denim we've ever sourced and thus, the most expensive denim garments we've ever released. We believe that for our 20th Anniversary, there is no better time than now to push the envelope and show the full range of what our manufacturing partners are capable of.
With this beautiful denim, we've chosen to apply it to our two most popular styles: The Classic Tapered cut and our Type 3s Denim jacket. They release this Thursday, October 5th on our website at noon EST and in-store via our NY & LA flagship stores on the same day. You can also find them via the following retail partners:
Blue Owl Workshop (Seattle)
Cultizm (Online)
Franklin & Poe (Philadelphia)
Iron Shop Provisions (Lake Charles)
Redcast Heritage (Madrid)
Reserve Supply Company (Houston)
Self Edge (SF/NY/LA/PDX)
Withered Fig (Online)
