It's an antidote to fast fashion: Japanese jeans hand-dyed with natural indigo and woven on a clackety vintage loom, then sold at a premium to global denim connoisseurs.
Unlike their mass-produced cousins, the tough garments crafted at the small Momotaro Jeans factory in southwest Japan are designed to be worn for decades and come with a lifetime repair warranty.
On site, Yoshiharu Okamoto dips cotton strings into a tub of deep blue liquid. The cotton is imported from Zimbabwe, but the natural indigo they use is harvested in Japan—its color far richer than synthetic imitations.
Okamoto calls it a "time-consuming and costly" method used to dye kimonos in the 17th-19th century Edo period.
This story is from the December 20, 2024 edition of The Citizen.
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This story is from the December 20, 2024 edition of The Citizen.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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