Hiut Denim Co. is living up to the mission statement positioned on one of its factory walls: “How can we be lower impact today than we were yesterday?”
On Wednesday, the U.K.-based sustainable denim brand debuted “Landfill Dropout,” a limited-edition micro collection of zero-waste men’s and women’s jeans, its lowest-impact denim line to-date. Each pair is created using scraps compiled from the brand’s previous collections that would have otherwise gone to waste.
“We want to do better and keep making high-quality jeans with the lowest impact on the planet,” said Emma Macleod, head of press at Hiut Denim Co. “Combining all of the different denim we have used over the last year makes for a completely unique, one-of-a-kind jean that is completely bespoke and beautiful.”
The line consists of two fits for men, including the Work, a mid-rise straight leg and the Hack, a mid-rise slim fit, both with a button fly, and two fits for women, including the Eira, a cropped high-rise straight leg and the Aurelia, a high-rise wide leg with a rolled hem.
Over the past 15 months, the brand has been collecting cutting room scraps from its limited-edition and stock denim and organizing them by segment, such as waistbands, pockets and leg panels. The latter posed a challenge, as the brand says there were very few pieces big enough to use on their own. Instead, designers created leg panels by sewing pieces of fabric together, resulting in 65 unique pairs of jeans. Each pair is comprised of 100 percent cotton—organic, recycled and reused cotton—and lives up to its zero-waste makeup, as there were no new trims, fabric or thread used to build the collection.
Reused denim has become the fabric of choice for many circularity-focused brands such as denim heavyweight Levi’s, which just recently debuted its upcycled collection made in partnership with Collina Strada. The collection offers a limited run of customized vintage Levi’s 501 jeans and Levi’s Trucker jackets decorated with multicolor, hand-stenciled stars that reflect founder Hillary Taymour’s joyful approach to design.
Husband and wife duo David and Clare Hieatt founded Hiut Denim to bring denim manufacturing jobs back to their town of Cardigan in Wales. The company adheres to a strict policy of quality over quantity, making no more than 100 pairs of jeans per week, and has a penchant for offering micro-collections like the biodegradable stretch jeans it debuted in 2020 with just two slim-fit styles for men and women.
Hiut Denim’s Landfill Dropout collection is available now on the Hiut website for $338 (250 pound sterlings). Men’s sizes range from 30W-38W, and women’s range from 26W-36W.