We’ve got some pretty progressive jeans from Nudie Jeans Co. Some of them are made from hemp, some are made from bamboo, and some are made out of paper.
What a wonderful world we live in.
To find out more about these curious creations, we spoke to design-man Morgan Sundberg via live satellite link-up...
What’s the story with this stuff? Who’s idea was it?
The idea comes from Maria Erixon, the founder of Nudie Jeans. It was created when she met with our Japanese denim suppliers. The Bloodline range reflects our constant development of alternative and sustainable denim, and is the perfect limited edition collection to help us celebrate our 15 year anniversary.
Maybe a bit of a daft question, but what sort of paper do you use to make the paper jeans? Is it just normal lined paper from the office? Or something a bit fancier? And what happens when the paper gets wet?
Ha! As tempting as it would be to use classic lined office paper, we have instead opted for traditional Japanese paper known as Wahsi. The jeans are made into water-twisting paper tapes, a technique which took seven years to develop, and there is no problem when washing them in a domestic washing machine!
Is this stuff hard to work with? How does it differ from making jeans from cotton?
The development and testing of these new fabrics can be a long but enjoyable process. When you get to the end result of a well-made material it can be very rewarding. There isn’t too much difference. We still like to ensure that we create good quality materials so the time and energy is pretty equal in that sense.
Perhaps a dull question, but how will this stuff wear in?
Each jean from the Bloodline collection will wear differently due to the different textures in each pair. Your customers are in for a breaking in treat with these jeans, it will be interesting to see how they wear and tear with each wearer. Follow-up pictures are welcomed!
Do you think this stuff will ever make it into the normal Nudie Jeans range? When will hemp jeans be a normal thing?
We have used hemp in the past in our LAB collection, it’s a great plant to work with and it grows all year round in vast amounts. We are continuously trying out other new ways of creating interesting and innovative fabrics so who knows what may happen in the future? We hope that we continue to create jeans that are innovative and kinder to the planet.
What do you reckon the jeans of the future look like?
The feeling and look of wearing in a pair of dry jeans which reflects the wearer’s lifestyle won't change anytime soon. All denim lovers will always have that unique relationship with their favourite pair of jeans. The future is in denim being developed in alternative fibres and being more sustainable on the environment and humanity. This is something we’ve always maintained and hope to continue to do in the next 15 years.
Nudie Jeans has been going for 15 years now. How have things changed since you started out? And how else are you lot celebrating?
We’ve been pretty consistent with the use of our materials for the last 15, we still used the same Kaihara selvage fabric that Maria discovered at the beginning which gave Maria the idea to create the brand that is Nudie Jeans. Our 15 year anniversary is a way to also celebrate our relationship with this reliable and hard wearing material that we love so much!
What else have Nudie Jeans Co got going on right now? Anything else interesting in the pipeline?
For Spring 2017 we are launching jeans made from Organic Cotton from Cone Mills (the oldest denim weaver in USA) and we’ve used Nashville grown indigo, where farmers are changing their crops from Tobacco to Natural Indigo, among other things.
Apart from that who knows what is in the future?
The Nudie Jeans Co Bloodline range is available from Oi Polloi now.