Leave it to two of the most passionate advocates for responsible denim production to make a new pair of women’s jeans that ticks virtually every box for sustainable denim.
Candiani Denim Store, the Milan-based boutique and online shop founded by Italian denim mill Canadiani Denim, and Los Angeles-based brand Boyish Jeans joined forces to make a limited-edition jean that taps into Gen Z’s demand for looser fits and fashion manufactured with the environment in mind.
The Mikey jean, a high-waisted, wide-leg style, boasts Candiani’s Coreva stretch technology—a plant-based alternative to common synthetic and petroleum-based elastomers typically used in stretch fabrications.
As the world’s first biodegradable stretch denim, the technology has attracted leaders in the sustainable denim space like Denham the Jeanmaker, Stella McCartney and Triarchy, which have incorporated the material in new collections.
This is combined with organic cotton and Lenzing’s recycled cellulosic fibers, Refibra, to give the Mikey its ultra comfy hand feel and fit.
The fabric is dyed with Candiani’s Indigo Juice technology, a process that superficially applies indigo to the yarn, and sized with Kitotex, a natural polymer that replaces conventional chemicals, eliminates micro-plastics and allow for a significant reduction in water and energy used in the production process.
Jeans produced with both of these technologies reportedly use 75 percent less water and 65 percent fewer chemicals than conventional denim fabric.
The Mikey Jean by Boyish Jeans x Candiani Denim Store is available at the Candiani Denim Store and on candianidenim.store for $232.
The Candiani Denim Store launched in 2019 to help facilitate transparent storytelling. It serves as a showcase of the mill’s top clients and hard-to-find brands such as Ace Rivington, Atelier & Repairs, Benzak, Blue of a Kind, Closed, Denham, Dondup and Matias.
With this collaboration, Boyish Jeans is also continuing its transparency efforts. Last year, it added supply-chain tracing company Retraced GmbH’s blockchain-based transparency plugin to its e-commerce website, educating consumers on each product’s journey, the production processes needed to create the item and environmental implications for all products mapped out on the platform.