Denim brands, retailers and industry personalities helped kicked off the first-ever Denim Room at Project Las Vegas last week. A new initiative by Project, Denim Room served as a hub for creativity, innovation and sustainability in the denim industry.
In Las Vegas, Atelier & Repairs co-founder Maurizio Donadi curated an exhibition with items from his own collection, while Denim Dudes founder Amy Leverton led conversations with other leaders in the space. The area served as a launchpad for brands to share stories about their most exciting denim pieces in their Fall/Winter 20-21 collections.
Trinidad3 made its debut at Project. The Los Angeles-based brand founded by a military veteran Trinidad Garcia III, showcased core items, including jeans with a red waistband, which Garcia said is a nod to the red tuxedo stripe a soldier wears after earning the rank of corporal.
The collection also included jeans Garcia designed specifically for his fellow comrades. The Barron, named after Garcia’s friend Josue Barron who was injured in combat, is a slim-fit men’s jean with zippers that extend from the pocket down to the knee. The feature is meant to provide the wearer with access to his prosthetic limb, which he can adjust without removing the jeans. The jean was named “Best Showpiece” in the Rivet Awards.
Devil-Dog Dungarees—a moniker that references a nickname for the U.S. Marines—also showed its support for military veterans by donating $50,000 to the Wounded Warriors organization. Rather than donate a portion of each sale to the project, the company opted to contribute one lump sum and then share the feel-good story to consumers by placing a silver tag highlighting the contribution on each pair of jeans.
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At Project, Devil-Dog debuted its first sustainable collection called SET, an acronym for the values it encompasses: sustainable materials, eco-friendly production methods and transparent sourcing. The brand’s parent company, General Sportwear, will list all of its suppliers on its website this fall.
SET jeans swap traditional materials for more sustainable alternatives, including recycled or BCI-certified cotton, Repreve recycled polyester, recycled paper and jarcon. The collection is also made with a proprietary wash technique that is water- and energy-efficient. All of the jeans are produced within company-owned WRAP Platinum-certified facilities in Central America.
Premium denim brand DL1961 brought its Better By DL collection to Project. The men’s and women’s capsule collection is the brand’s “ultra-sustainable” effort, distinguished by its dark wash and pared down designs.
The entire collection is made with DL’s “Snyder” wash, a light rinse that conserves water and eliminates chemicals. Additionally, no rivets are used in the line as the hardware can pose a challenge for recycling at the end of its lifecycle.
The six-piece Better By DL line for women features a dress, jacket and jumpsuit, as well as straight leg, bootcut and cropped jeans. The men’s collection offers three pieces: a classic Trucker jacket, slim fit jean and a denim shirt. An accompanying marketing campaign featuring activists will launch in August.
Unique textures were also a highlight at Project. Diesel expanded its popular line of velvet denim by adding tobacco and slate versions for F/W 20-21. Meanwhile, 7 For All Mankind continued its program of coated denim, which took a new form in rich fall colors, like deep red, purple and brown.
London-based Fagassent featured rip-and-repair styles, with extreme distressing and tears that expose red plaid. The grunge-inspired look was carried through the brand’s F/W 20-21 collection, which emphasized unique dyeing effects that resembled red and blue tie dye and denim with paint splatter and studs.
Project also saw some newcomers, including Modern American, which will launch in March. A sister brand to Fidelity Denim, the men’s and women’s brand is geared to eco-savvy Gen Z consumers. The jeans are made with organic cotton and hardware, trims and tags are all made of recycled materials.
BDG, a brand most commonly known for supplying denim to Urban Outfitters, touted its wholesale division, which launched over a year ago. Developed by its team in the U.K., the wholesale division works with retailers like Nordstrom and Zalando. The collection offered core fits exclusively for women, including styles ranging from boyfriend to mom to workwear-inspired jeans.