Did you know it takes around 3,700 litres of water to make a single pair of jeans? That’s roughly the same amount of water the average person drinks over 3.5 years.

That’s because most denim is made out of conventional cotton—a fiber that is usually heavily irrigated and fertilized in cultivation, as well as one that uses a huge amount of water in the manufacturing, finishing (dyeing and washing) and packaging processes. Conventional cotton manufacturing also contributes to the practice of monocropping on a global scale, which can weaken the soil, deplete its nutrients and reduce local biodiversity.

Making conventional denim is one of the fashion industry’s most chemical and water-intensive processes. That’s where our materials science comes in.

To help reduce dependency on conventional cotton, we’re committed to working with a more diverse range of materials. That’s why our denim is made using a unique blend and construction that’s not currently available on the market.

• Dyed using state-of-the-art water and dye saving processes
• Fully biobased, cellulose thread
• Non-galvanized, stainless-steel buttons that can be recycled
• Unique PANGAIA purple-line detail

Our Nettle Selvedge Denim blend is made in Italy using wild Himalayan nettle and organic cotton, created using a left hand twill for added softness (compared to right hand twill which is most common in the industry). It's also treated with PPRMINT™️ oil to help keep the fabric fresher for longer.  

• Grows wild and abundantly in the Himalayan mountain forests
• Naturally regenerative resource meaning it grows back every year, with shoots reaching up to 3m in height
• Helps support local communities by providing off-season work for farmers who wild-harvest the raw material without disruption to their farm activities
• Promotes root growth to help soil stabilization in landslide prone mountains

Spun in reverse on a shuttle loom, a left hand twill creates a softer feel than the right hand twill most commonly used in the industry.

Selvedge is a self-finished denim where the edges form a distinctive clean ‘self edge’. Our Nettle Selvedge Denim has a unique PANGAIA purple-line detail that’s visible when the jeans are rolled up. Selvedge denim is slowly woven on a shuttle loom (traditional textile weaving machine), taking 3x longer than a modern projectile loom. Selvedge denim is also half the width of modern projectile loom denim. Meaning it takes 6 times longer to produce fabric for a pair of selvedge denim jeans. As a result, less than 1% of the world’s denim is produced using shuttle looms.