For Many Brands, Premium Denim Begins in Japan
Blue jeans are as American as apple pie. But an increasing number of denim labels are turning to Japan as a source for fabric.
“If you’re serious about denim, you have to be using Japanese denim,” said Dan Levine, vice president of design at Hurley International.
In the way that Italian mills were leaders with stretch denim, Japanese companies set the pace for detail and innovation. Premium denim lines—ranging from Hurley and Seven for All Mankind to Oligo Tissew and Earnest Sewn—use Japanese-made cloth to enhance their designs in a competitive and crowded market.
“The quality of Japanese denim is excellent,” said Satoshi Ushida, who heads a chemistry lab focusing on indigo dyes at Mukogawa Women’s University in Nishinomiya, Japan. “Apparel companies and textile companies [in Japan] pay much attention to the quality.”
Fiber finesse
Denim can be differentiated by fiber, yarn shape and dye. “The history of Japanese denim is [the mills] have always been very concerned and very obsessed with making beautiful yarns and beautiful color to replicate old things,” said Andrew Olah, who is chief executive of New York’s Olah Inc. and the U.S. representative for Kurabo Industries Ltd., a big producer of Japanese denim. He said Japanese companies historically have picked superior fibers that yield more luster, better hand, nicer drape and stronger absorption of stone-washing.
In Japanese denim, “you can see more of the slubs,” said Lisa Rodarte, who designs juniors denim for Hurley. The Costa Mesa, Calif.–based company said it used Japanese denim supplied by Arrigato Mr. Roboto in faded miniskirts and dark jeans subjected to resin dips, hand sanding and other treatments. Hurley said that next year it will plant stickers on Japanese denim styles indicating that the garments have been “constructed with the finest Japanese denim.” Levine said the company’s young customers want Japanese denim.
Retailing up to $125, the jeans made from Japanese denim are Hurley’s most expensive, costing three times more than the basic five-pocket version. Denim sales for Fall 2004, when Hurley introduced Japanese denim, are up 40 percent from sales for Fall 2003, said Stever Rapp, men’s denim designer at the company.
Even a mid-tier label such as It Jeans will introduce Japanese denim in Spring 2005, in two styles retailing for $68. “These days, denim is all about the character of the denim fabric and the washes,” said It Chief Executive Officer Kimmy Song, who uses cloth made by Kurabo. The washes that impart gray or palegreen tints to the Japanese denim were designed specifically for that fabric, said Brand Manager Ricardo Carrera-Lowe.
Spinning technique and dyeing expertise
For Kurabo, the boom started about four years ago, when Adriano Goldschmied, Seven and Paper, Denim & Cloth placed small orders for textiles to make their $130-plus jeans. Kurabo’s current customers include Earnest Sewn, J. Crew Inc. and Gap Inc. Olah said Kurabo’s strength lies in its background as a spinning company, founded in 1888.
Olah said Kurabo sells the entire output of two factories in Japan and China to worldwide customers. Kurabo charges $5.50 to $8 a yard for its fabric made in Japan and $3 to $4 a yard for that made in China, which has lower labor costs and better economies of scale. It takes 60 days to fulfill an order. Olah claimed that Kurabo is one of the biggest producers of selvedge denim, which is woven on a shuttle loom, giving it a closed edge. At Kurabo, each yard length of selvedge costs the same price as the yard lengths of other products. But because selvedge is half the width of conventional denim, customers must buy twice as much, making selvedge twice as expensive as other denim. Yet, for denim designers who aim for an authentic look, “that is all they want,” Olah said.
Olah said a current big seller for Kurabo is compact yarn, which has a smoother fiber resulting from a spinning process that tucks the fiber’s hairiness back into the material. Kurabo uses California cotton, which is very expensive but yields better fiber, Olah explained.
If Kurabo established its reputation on yarn, Kaihara Corp. made its name in dyeing. Kaihara, which operates mills only in Japan, got its start 111 years ago dyeing indigo kimonos. After launching its denim business in 1970, it supplied fabric for Gloria Vanderbilt’s designer jeans in the ’80s, according to Ron Lau, head of Kaihara’s exports in Hong Kong.
Lau said business last year “went crazy.” He said Kaihara works very closely with customers and offers flexible production. Thanks to the success of some high-end labels that integrated better fabric, fit and styling into jeans, consumers became more sophisticated, he added.
“Denim has matured a lot over the past few years,” he said. “The fabric is only part of the whole game.”
Lau said it could take 90 to 120 days to fill an order and perhaps less time for smaller quantities. He said Kaihara, run by the fourth generation of the Kaihara family, handles 3 million to 3.2 million yards a month and charges $4 to $6 a yard for customers including Levi Strauss & Co.
Premium here at home
The popularity of Japanese denim is not lost on privately held Cone Denim, the world’s largest denim producer, based in Greensboro, N.C.
“In the U.S. market, the Japanese are very significant competitors in the most premium segments of the marketplace,” said Tom McKenna, Cone’s executive vice president of merchandising and marketing. “We feel that many of our denims compete consistently with Japanese denim but do recognize that several of the Japanese producers are the world leaders in innovation.”
McKenna said Cone plans to invest in specialty equipment and hire people who will generate and execute ideas with the same level of detail as some Japanese players consistently do. For instance, Cone began marketing its Wide Oak brand, made primarily on fly-shuttle looms.
McKenna declined to disclose Cone’s prices and sales volume but said Cone is “usually a good 15 percent on average lower than the Japanese and Italian denim.” He said it takes, on average, three to four weeks to process an order. Placing more attention on the premium denim market, Cone counts True Religion, Chip & Pepper, Sanctuary, Blue Cult and Red Engine among its customers.
Because of the booming premium market, the jeans business in America is evolving from a commodity business, said Olah of Kurabo.
“We haven’t changed,” he said. “We’re just more popular.”
