Category guide
Denim is the highest-impact garment most people own, and the one where the finishing process — not the cotton — does most of the damage.
Ethical jeans are usually discussed as a cotton question. The cotton matters, but the part of denim production that has injured people is the finishing: the sandblasting, stonewashing and chemical treatments that make new jeans look worn. A pair of raw jeans skips all of it, and gets better the longer you keep them.
Sandblasting worn-look abrasion into denim exposed workers to respirable silica and caused documented cases of silicosis, an irreversible lung disease, which is why the practice has been the subject of industry-wide campaigns to abolish it. Stonewashing uses pumice and large volumes of water. Chemical bleaching adds effluent. All three exist for one reason: to sell a new garment that looks old.
Two alternatives have replaced them where brands have bothered. Laser finishing burns the pattern into the surface with no grit, no water and no chemistry. Ozone washing uses gas instead of liquid and cuts water use sharply. Both are widely available now, which means a brand still selling heavily distressed cheap denim has made a choice rather than run out of options.
The cleanest answer is raw denim: unwashed, undistressed, stiff for the first month, and then gradually shaped by the person wearing it. The fade pattern that finishing tries to fake is the one thing you cannot buy: it is a record of one particular body and one particular year.
Denim in 100% organic cotton, built around free repairs, with the stated intention that its jeans become vintage rather than rubbish. The repair offer is the substantive part: it changes what the company is selling from a garment to a garment plus its maintenance, and it means the most sustainable pair of jeans you can own is the one you already bought from them.
A craft jeans maker working in raw, selvedge and organic denim, with a flagship at Coal Drops Yard and a repair and alterations service that is not limited to garments it made. Manufacturing in the city where the jeans are sold removes the freight question entirely, and a maker who repairs other brands' denim is a maker who has seen what fails.
Weight in ounces. Around 12 oz is an everyday jean. 14 oz and above is heavyweight: uncomfortable for a fortnight, then extremely durable. Under 11 oz will wear through at the thigh.
Selvedge or not. Selvedge denim is woven on narrow shuttle looms with a self-finished edge. It is not automatically more durable, but it is almost always a sign of a mill and a brand paying attention to construction.
Rivets and stitching. Bar-tacked stress points and a chain-stitched hem can be repaired by any denim workshop. Bonded or glued detailing cannot.
ARMEDANGELS works in organic cotton and recycled materials across a full denim range, publishes an annual impact report and runs resale for its own pieces, the widest set of sizes and fits among the brands here. armedangels.com
Komodo carries denim within a wide organic range and has been trading on an ethical position since 1988. komodo.co.uk
For labels working from denim that already exists (deadstock rolls and reworked secondhand jeans), see the menswear guide.
Wash them rarely and cold. Denim does not need weekly laundering, and every wash costs the indigo some depth, which is why the fades enthusiasts prize come from wearing, not washing. Air them instead; spot clean what needs it.
Repair early. A thinning patch at the crotch or inner thigh takes a five-minute reinforcement before it opens and a substantial patch afterwards. This one habit is the difference between three years and ten, and it is why brands offering repair are worth more than brands offering certification.
Buy the waist, not the label size, and expect raw denim to relax roughly an inch in the first month. A pair bought a size up because they felt tight on day one is a pair that will be too big by day thirty.
And when they finally go: heavy cotton denim is the best raw material for visible mending there is. Sashiko repair, patchwork and darning all work better on twill than on anything else; the repair directory lists workshops that do exactly this by post.
Questions
Mostly the finishing rather than the cotton. Sandblasting worn-look abrasion into denim exposed workers to respirable silica and caused documented cases of silicosis, which is why the practice has been the subject of industry-wide campaigns to end it. Stonewashing uses pumice and large volumes of water; chemical bleaching adds effluent.
Laser finishing and ozone washing replace all three, and are widely available now.
It skips the finishing stage entirely, which is where most of the harm sits. It is stiff for the first month and then shaped by the person wearing it: the fade pattern that distressing tries to fake is a record of one body and one year, and cannot be bought.
Above about two per cent the jeans will bag out within a year and cannot realistically be repaired at the seam or recycled. Pure cotton denim moulds to you instead of giving up.
Wash them rarely and cold, air them instead, and repair early, because a thinning patch at the inner thigh takes a five-minute reinforcement before it opens and a substantial patch afterwards. Buy the waist rather than the label size, and expect raw denim to relax about an inch in the first month.