As a designer we normally think about the thing we're about to sell and the mechanisms that we can deploy to make a connection with the consumer. The most important moment is either that moment on the runway for them or the moment where someone has purchased it. And that's really the extent that we think about the life of this garment. But the more critical thing to think about is when you see it in a landfill. When you see it wash up on shore. To think about the materials that you're using, thinking about not just the beautiful printed material in all of its glorious color, but what did the actual base material look like before it got printed, before your pattern and your color way was selected? Was it a grown material? What were the conditions that grew that material? Was it a material that was pumped out of the earth? Is it an extracted thing? >> We all know that our brand is built on quality. It's built on durability and timelessness. That we try to design things that will endure and that will last for a long time. That's probably the most sustainable thing we can do. So sometimes we are sold things as sustainable. And as we worked through them, we actually began to understand them as not the most sustainable thing. Like mixing in a recycled polyester into a 100% cotton garment, for example, you're potentially making something that's unrecyclable. So it sounds like a good idea because you're using recycled polyester, but ultimately, if you're going to create something that can't be recycled again, then it's not a good idea. >> The challenge that we put to ourselves with sustainability initatives. Can you completely reimagine every feature of the garment from the creation and sourcing of its materials to the way it was assembled, where it was assembled? And how it was assembled, how it was delivered and the messaging around how it should be cared for? Can you change all of that without changing any of the aesthetic quality of a garment? And can you do it in a way that doesn't compromise its strength and its intended lasting value? And can you do it in a way that then generates environmental value and positive impact on the community at every step of the way? We know that a lot of the water used at the medium level is in the application of color. And so there have been a lot of work happening in these hybridization of cotton variables to grow colored cotton. We, because we're a small little assortment, a scrappy assortment, only had room for one color and that color we experimented with was this grown khaki. But there are grown reds and grown blues and grown browns and olives, there's a beautiful palette that's been developed. And so our challenge was to pick a color once and to find how to maximize its value out of buying a couple bales of this khaki cotton. It made a great khaki jean jacket and a khaki 511. It can be hot together with undyed, unbleached cottons. And you can get all sorts of different levels of color from 100% dark khaki through to these sort of lighter oatmeal colors. And then using it as a yarn dye. But it's a great way to frankly eliminate the use of water in the color application process because. >> There is no dye. >> There's no dye. Levi's, where an object of utility work where mining initially then logging, construction, farmers. But then we all know intuitively that moment in time when they stopped being strickly an object of utility and became a mechanism for social identification. We think about Marlon Brando or Jimmy Dean in some of the iconic films from the early 50s, where the blue jean has become a signifier of dissent. That he's the bad boy, he's sort of a, he's not that clean cut Ivy League or he's something a little sort of a little rebellious. So it's stopped being that object of strict utility and it evolved into this uniform of decent. And then as such became part of more of conventional fashion system. And it became subject to all of this sort of the varied oscillations of style from this season. It's the super skinny, last season it's the boyfriend, see before it's the matchstick, before that it's the wide leg trouser. And so it became subject to all of these wild variations that are so much fun in the fashion space, but also part of the system that drives consumption and then drives situations of planned obsolescence. The tension is we have an object that we know, can be worn for decades and it is participating in a system where it needs to reinvent its value every six months. My job is to figure out how to take this system that exists, modify the inputs, and in such a way that we could hopefully get a more stable output. >> This one's not in the book, but we thought- >> Ooh. >> We were challenged to create a embroidery for the back to add this sort of decorative appeal for a few select units. Obviously conventional chain stitch that uses a poly thread would be inconsistent with a wellthread methodology. And so and team have been working to source Indigo. >> Cotton and indigo. >> Cotton indigo thread. >> We've had to do a lot of work on our cotton thread because it was weaker and started using supina cotton. So it's a longer, stronger, fiber, and that's the only way we've been able to increase our thread strength and have it be usable in things like sewing the jeans. Otherwise, it's just too weak. So we did about two seasons of development work, and we had to, in the end, specify the exact product we wanted from the US. It ships to Turkey, and then they spin it into thread. And that's the only way we know that we're going to be able to ship. Cotton red that's high quality. >> At least that's what you have, that's not that argument to be made when you confront your PDMS partner that's saying, no you can't do cotton. Well, yes you can. You can go right to the page, right to the test results, and just skip through some of the BS that's going to try to shut down what you know to be a good idea. And if you need help pushing it through- >> Cool. Yeah, yeah. [LAUGH] Almost any company at this point, in this day and age, would so much focus on the considerations of labor rights and sustainability. Even if they don't lead with it as a message. Even if they're not Patagonia or Levi's or one of the people who're really active in the space. They going to have a vendor list online, and they're going to have some form of an environmental report online. And if you can't find those two items, and assure yourself to some reasonable degree that you're about to buy a garment that was made ethically and responsibly. Then the truth is, it wasn't made ethically or responsibly. And so just a little bit of homework around your favorite brands and you'll be able to find the ones that have a credible report out there. That will give you some insight. You could do a little bit of homework and make yourself feel a lot more secure in the relative morality of the purchase you're about to make. The other thing that you could ask yourself is, really, do I need that? [LAUGH] I mean, you probably do if it's a pair of Levi's. But for anyone else out there, it's highly unlikely that anything you're about to buy is something that you actually need. Now, that's the real incendiary comment right there. But I'm also confident that I can say that because I work at a company that became globally synonymous for an important apparel category, jeans, off of one fit and no wash. So you can succeed off of a limited assortment selling necessary needful things to people who are going to use some responsibility. That is a real business. It doesn't just have to be frivolity and excess. [NOISE]
