how the coveted Japanese jeans are made (#1687126)

Call it an antidote to fast fashion: Japanese jeans hand-dyed with natural indigo and woven on a noisy vintage loom, then sold at a premium to denim connoisseurs around the world.

Unlike their mass-produced cousins, the durable garments made at Momotaro Jeans' small factory in southwestern Japan are designed to be worn for decades and come with a lifetime repair guarantee.

At the scene, Yoshiharu Okamoto gently dips cotton threads into a vat of deep blue liquid, staining his hands and nails as he repeats the process.

The cotton is imported from Zimbabwe, but the natural indigo they use is harvested in Japan; Its color is much richer than that of synthetic imitations, according to Okamoto.

He calls it a “time-consuming and expensive” method, commonly used to dye kimonos in the Edo period of the 17th to 19th centuries.

Momotaro Jeans was founded in 2006 by Japan Blue, one of a few dozen denim producers in the coastal city of Kojima, renowned for its quality craftsmanship.

“We are very strict in all aspects of manufacturing,” Japan Blue president Masataka Suzuki told AFP.

That includes “whether the stitching was done correctly and whether the dye is beautiful,” making local artisans with traditional manufacturing skills indispensable.

However, their efforts do not come cheap. A standard pair of Momotaro Jeans sells for about 30,000 yen ($200), while a silk-blend pair costs 60,000 yen.

The brand's most expensive offering, handwoven on a wooden machine converted from a luxury kimono loom, is priced at more than 200,000 yen.

Following in the footsteps of popular high-end Japanese denim brands such as Osaka-based Evisu and Tokyo-based Sugar Cane, interest in Japan Blue is growing among overseas buyers.

They now account for 40% of retail sales and the company recently opened its sixth store in Kyoto aimed at deep-pocketed tourists.

'Niche' reputation

Denim manufacturing flourished starting in the 1960s in Kojima, which has a long history of cotton farming and textile manufacturing.

In the Edo period, the city produced woven ropes for samurai to tie the handles of their swords. It went on to produce split-toe “tabi” socks and, later, school uniforms.

Now Kojima denim is used by international luxury fashion brands.

The market for Japanese jeans “has grown in the last 10 to 15 years,” said Michael Pendlebury, a tailor who runs a repair shop in Britain called The Denim Doctor.

Although they are revered by denim fans in Western countries, they remain “not entirely affordable for most” and have a “niche” reputation, Pendlebury said.

“Mass-produced denim brands like Levis, Diesel and Wrangler are the biggest and most worn, but in my opinion, the highest quality is still Japanese,” he said, adding that the weak yen and booming tourism could boost sales of handmade clothing. Japanese jeans.

Momotaro Jeans is named after a folk hero from Okayama, where Kojima is located. It is part of the broader Sanbi denim production area, which also includes Hiroshima.

Another factor that makes brands like Momotaro Jeans idiosyncratic (and expensive) is the use of old, very noisy shuttle weaving machines, which produce only a quarter of the output of the latest factory looms.

They often break down, but the only people who know how to repair them are 70 years old or older, according to Shigeru Uchida, a Momotaro weaving craftsman.

The brand uses a handful of shuttle looms manufactured in the 1980s by a company owned by Toyota.

“Now there are only a few left in Japan,” because they are no longer manufactured, says Uchida, 78, as he walks back and forth between the machines to listen for unusual sounds that could indicate a breakdown.

Despite the complexities, she says her knitting makes it worth it.

“The texture is very soft to the touch… and when it is made into jeans, it lasts quite a long time,” Uchida said.

Suzuki says Momotaro Jeans is a “sustainable” choice because “no matter when you bring it to us, we'll be responsible for fixing it.”

“When people spend a lot of time in their jeans, the path of their life becomes the clothes,” depending on how they wear or wash them and even where they live, Suzuki said.

“We want to keep that brand as long as possible.”