Italians do it better, anyway when it comes to fabrics. The worlds most renowned weavers of fabrics for suits come from the Biella district in Italy. The districted is situated right at the foot of the Italian Alps, and was ideal for weaving with its copious supply of water coming down from the mountains needed for washing fleece and powering mills.Many of the family businesses that still produce the finest fabrics, started as early as in the 19th century. Knowledge is passed on through generations, with every generation developing new techniques.

We use fabrics from renowned weaver families like Luigi Botto, Loro Piana and Cerrutti, all situated in the Biella district. All of which has archives with fabrics manufactured dating as far back as the 19 century.

An important source of inspiration for new fabrics comes from the past, namely these historical archives. We usually take a historical fabric that we then reconstruct, meaning taking a wool pattern and use it for a cotton fabric or changing the colours. Simply combining the past with the present.

Mats is somewhat of a fabric doctor at Tiger, knowing everything that’s worth knowing about fabrics. He recently came back from an inspiration trip to Biella, as we are about start working on Autumn/Winter 2009 collection. He paid a visit to the old archives in the search of inspiration. Here are some pics from his trip and how we work:

In part two of the denim school, I sat down with Johan who explained the most essential things regarding jeans. Jeans is as I mentioned in part 1 a complete science, and this are the most essential parts of it.

Indigo has been used to colour different types of textiles for at least 4000 years, and is the most used dye in the world. It’s a natural colour agent that can be found in several plants, all around the world. It has been regarded as somewhat magical, and was believed to being healthy for the skin as well as scaring of snakes and mosquitoes.

Another aspect of indigo is that the colour surrounds the fibres and actually makes the fabric stronger. A unique feature of indigo is that it does not bond strongly to the fibres. As such, repeated wear and washing causes the dye to lift from the surface of the fibres while leaving the underlining fibres largely intact.

There are three major weaving techniques (we use all three). Right-hand was the first one used by Levis. The grain lines runs from the top right-hand corner of the fabric to the bottom left, and is the most commonly used. It makes the denim (and jeans) quite stiff and hard. The jeans becomes hard wearing but can crack over time, but it also has the benefit that it gets nice patina.

Left-hand is a technique developed by Lee and gives the denim a softer character, but isn’t as durable. In opposite to Right-Hand, the grain lines run from the top left-hand corner towards the bottom right. It also stretches more, and therefore gives a looser fit.

The last type is called Broken twill and was invented by a man called John Neill Walker for Wrangler in 1964. It’s different in that way that its diagonal twill line change direction. Except the unique surface texture, this weave also prevented the legs from twisting, which was a common occurrence at the time.

In the early 30´s a man called Sanford Cluett invented a technique to pre shrink jeans (raw denim usually shrinks 3-4 inches). This technique is still used on basically all jeans today. One of the most common used fadings is whiskers, and is developed either by hand or laser (or natural tear). Another used technique is to use enzymes. The enzymes eats up the indigo leaving the fabric with a washed look, without tearing on the fabric. Some jeans are also given a dirty look by a technique called tinting, which means that you dye the jeans with a base colour.

Selvage is the narrow tightly woven band on either edge of the denim fabric, which prevents the edge of the fabric from unravelling. At first the legendary Cone Mills used different colours of the thread, in order to identify the particular fabrics used by their manufacturers. Levis began with an all white strip and later on had a single red stripe along both selvages, Lee’s had a blue or green strip and Wrangler had a yellow. In the late seventies manufacturers began to shift from 27”-30” shuttle looms to much larger 60”+ modern versions, which were more cost efficient. However it also meant an end too much of the selvage, since the new machines did not have the recognizable selvage on either side.

A common advice when buying raw denim is to wear them as long as you possibly can, the denim gets the most natural look by doing so (something you might already know). Instead of washing them you can put them in the freezer or hang them out to air them. Another piece of advice when buying jeans is that when standing barefoot the jeans should barely touch the floor. Jeans usually shrink one cm. This is a matter of taste of course.

Denim is a complete science. From the first jeans in denim that were manufactured in 1860 until today, a lot has happened. Johan at the jeans department at Tiger, is a bit of a denim maniac and knows almost everything there is to know. I sat down with Johan to get the facts straight (like for instance why denim is called denim), and here is the first chapter in a serie about denim- the history.

The Word denim comes from a French textile that was manufactured in Nîmes. The fabric was called deNîmes (from Nîmes), and later on just denim. In the 18th century it was one of the strongest fabrics in the world, used mainly for sails. The word “jeans” comes from Genua, where the first jeans were manufactured in the 16th century, and were worn by Italian sailors.

In 1847 the 24 year old Levi Strauss immigrated to San Francisco from Germany. After working with his brothers selling textiles, he set up a wholesale firm selling supplies to gold diggers. One of the best selling products was workpants, and the company was flourishing. When the gold era came to an end in the 1860´s, Levi Strauss was a wealthy man.

At first jeans wasn’t that durable. A tailor named Jacob Davies in Nevada was busy repairing jeans that had been torn, especially around the pockets. He came up with the idea of strengthening the pockets in the same way used on horse equipment- with copper rivets. He started making jeans with his new invention, buying denim from Levi Strauss. The jeans was a success and when he tried to apply for a US patent he didn’t have the required 68 dollars. He turned to his fabric supplier and they teamed up together. It was an immediate success.  In 1873 Levis gave the different models numbers. The first model given a number was the 501, which is still a big seller today.

When the patent expired in 1891 competitors started to pop up. Henry David Lee was a merchant selling food and later on textiles and clothes. When his suppliers couldn’t guarantee delivery, he started his own work wear factory. Lee’s driver often complained that he got dirty while repairing the car. Together they came up with the idea of sewing a jacket and jeans together and the union-all overall was born. Targeted at mechanics and drivers, the overall was a success.

In 1924 Lee manufactured their 101 model, specially made for cowboys with thicker fabric and U shaped crouch (shaped for spending hours on a horseback). Another problem that the cowboys had was that it was hard unbuttoning the jeans with gloves on. In 1926 Lee released the first jeans with a zipper, making it easier for cowboys to take a leak.

During the twenties and thirties Hollywood started producing cowboy movies, and jeans became apart of popular culture. Common people started wearing jeans. In the 40´s only two major brands existed, Lee and Levis. When Wrangler started they launched the brand through rodeo. They hired a rodeo tailor named Rodeo Ben, who had designed clothes for rodeo stars. Soon almost every big rodeo star wore wrangler, and the sales started to take off.

At this time jeans was considered as workwear, garments worn on the countryside.
When the American troops came back from the Second World War, some bought motorcycles and started cruising the USA, wearing leather jackets and jeans. Hollywood picked up the phenomena and produced movies like “Wild one” with Marlon Brando and “Rebel without a cause” with James Dean. The jeans became a symbol of rebellion. At the same time when Elvis performed wearing jeans and stars like Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot had their pictures taken with jeans, the public’s image of jeans changed. Jeans spread among teenagers in America, and later on the rest of the world. Jeans became a part of popular culture, and still is today.

If you would like to learn more, there a few good books that you can read. Here are a couple that we warmly recommend:

You can get them at amazon, “Denim-from cowboys to catwalks” and “Vintage Denim”.