South Korean clothing brand Leje has been the talk of the town on Twitter after unveiling two very bizarre new jeans designs that look like wearable trompe l’oeil illusions.

Called “Slash Jeans”, the newest clothing items in Leje’s 2021 collection actually make your legs look like they’ve been slashed by a samurai or a ninja. At least that’s what they look like in the photos posted on the company’s Instagram, it remains to be seen if the effect is the same in real life. So how did Leje’s designers create this illusion? Well, it looks like they actually sliced the jeans and then stitched the pieces together unevenly, which is both simple and clever.

Read More »

Luxury fashion brand Ralph Lauren has been slammed and ridiculed online for selling a pair of paint-covered overalls for $695.

If you’re going to spend just under $700 on a pair of designed overalls, you at least want them to look expensive, right? No? Well, maybe that’s just me, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t them to make you look like you just finished painting an entire house. And yet that’s exactly the look that Ralph Lauren went with for its new “Paint-Splatter Coverall”, a pair of black denim overalls covered in white and orange paint stains and featuring beat-up knee areas.

Read More »

Italian luxury fashion brand Gucci has sparked controversy with its new line of products for Fall 2020, which includes distressed jeans with what looks like grass stains on them.

Distressed jeans have been around for a long time, but fashion companies have been pushing the envelope in this area for a while now. Back in 2017, fashion retailer Nordstrom made news headlines for selling jeans caked in fake mud for a whopping $425 and the Onomichi Denim Project boutique has long been selling premium jeans that have been pre-worn by someone for at least a year. Now, Italian fashion house Gucci has released a pair of jeans and a pair of jeans overalls “specifically treated for a stained-like, distressed effect” They cost $765 and $1,400 respectively…

Read More »

Textiles aren’t the main means of contamination for the SarsCov-2 virus, but studies have shown that it can survive on clothes for various periods of time. That’s why several companies are planning to launch lines of virus-killing denim.

Last month, Swiss company HeiQ announced that its Viroblock NPJ03 textile treatment had been tested against the SARS-CoV-2 virus strain and proved to be 99.99% effective in killing it. Virpblock had previously been tested against coronavirus 229E, another strain of virus in the Coronavirus family, but this latest test showed that the combination of silver salts with a vesicle technology was effective against the Covid-19 causing virus as well. HeiQ has since announced collaborations with several denim brands to create SarsCov-2-resistant clothes.

Read More »

The Onomichi Denim Project, a chic boutique in Onomichi, Japan’s Hiroshima Prefecture, is a popular destination for denim enthusiasts looking for a pair of truly special jeans. The shop is well-known around Japan and even abroad for selling premium jeans that have been worn by select members of the local community for at least one year.

Selling used jeans, or any other type of clothing for that matter, is not exactly a new business model, but Onomichi Denim Project is not your average second-hand denim retailer. Created in 2013, as a collaborative effort between local designer Yoshiyuki Hayashi, textile expert Yukinobu Danjo, and Discoverlink Setouchi, an organization that aims to supports local industry, the minimalist boutique aims to draw attention to the city’s top-quality craftsmanship and its people in a unique way. Plus, while used denim is generally sold at a discount, these particular jeans actually get about twice as a expensive after being worn by somebody almost daily, for at least a year.

Read More »

Meet Natasha Wagner, who according to America’s denim industry, has a perfect sized butt. With a height of five feet eight inches and a 28-inch waist, her size 6 figure makes her the most coveted ‘live mannequin’ to create what popular denim brands believe to be the perfect pair of jeans.

So for the past 14 years, the 34-year-old fit model has been making a living trying on jeans for big brands like Gap, Lucky Brand, Old Navy, Levi’s, Paige, Vince, and more. Believe it or not, these brands have been making jeans to fit just one person – Natasha!

According to Jennifer De Clark, senior director of women’s design and merchandising at 7 For All Mankind, Natasha’s bottom is the perfect average of thin and curvy women. “Natasha’s curves are in all the right places,” she said. “And having perfect proportions is the key to a great jean that will fit many different body types. She is the perfect size 28!”

Read More »

It’s hard saying goodbye to your favorite pair of jeans, even when they’re way beyond wearable, but English artist Ian Berry has found a way to avoid throwing away denim, by using it to create beautiful works of art.

Netherton-born artist Ian Berry, who now lives in Sweden, has made quite a name for himself after his unique art, called Denimu, took the art world by storm. It’s hard to believe the idea of using old denim as medium for his art came after a call from his mother, Christine, asking him to clean out his room. “It was about six or seven years ago my mum was clearing out my old room and she wanted me to go through my things. I found loads of old jeans and denims and I noticed the different colors and shades. I kept hold of them but it was only about 18 months later I began to do something with them.” Little did he know his experiment would soon make him and his denim art famous all over the world.

Read More »

When I was a kid, scratch-and-sniff stickers were the rage. We had all kinds of flavors and odors back then. While I have no idea if kids these days are still into such things, it does seem the in-thing for grown men, not with stickers, but jeans! Last week, a Canadian company launched a brand new line of scratch-and-sniff jeans.

Naked & Famous Denim, a company based in Montreal, has introduced the jeans at a price of $150. What’s special about them is that they smell like raspberry candy, when scratched. Unfortunately, the smell does fade over time, and you’ll be left with just a regular pair of denim pants. According to designer and company founder Brandon Svarc, the scent will last through at least five washings. But he says it shouldn’t be much of a problem since many of their male customers don’t wash their jeans very often, and some never wash them at all.

Read More »

Would you dare to sniff a pair of jeans that haven’t been washed in three months? If the very thought of it seems disgusting, wait till you hear this. This March, there’s going to be an exhibition of thirty such pairs at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.

The unusual collection of dirty jeans is the result of an experiment conducted by Tullia Jack, a researcher from Melbourne. In an effort to prove that people wash their clothes way too often, she recruited thirty volunteers to wear their jeans unwashed, five days a week, for three months. Ms. Jack is a student at the Melbourne University and a fashion lecturer at RMIT. “Not washing your jeans isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds,” she says. The experiment is a part of her Master of Philosophy thesis and she wants to use the findings to challenge our ‘extreme clean’ culture.

Read More »