We thought you’d like to know a bit of background to the sustainable developments of 2 fashion icons – the denim textile and the biker jacket. You can now buy combined in our new Tiffany biker jacket in organic black denim which represents the culmination of the sustainable journey of James&Co fashion style with plantbased zeroplastic textiles. And a great offer to you to pioneer with us.
Denim, as we know, is a sturdy wrap-faced textile traditionally made with 100% cotton. It derives its diagonal ribbing texture that is distinguishable from cotton by the twill-weaving procedure where the weft – which is 1 thread of unbleached yarn – is passed under 2 or more warp threads – which is dyed cotton yarn. Hence the denim fabric shows the blue or black or whatever dyed colour on the surface while the inside colour is white only.
At the outset, it’s acknowledged that denim made in the bad way uses cotton grown with massive amounts of water, using harmful herbicides and pesticides and environmentally harmful dyes.
Thankfully there are now new technologies for growing cotton using up to 98% less water and without the use of harmful chemicals. The denim can be made with the addition of other eco-friendly organic textiles like hemp, lyocell. Resulting in 100% organic cotton, sustainable and bio-degradable textile.
Again as we all know, the denim jacket became an iconic element of American fashion – representing change, independence and freedom. Embraced globally.
The biker jacket style became iconic first made in pure leather and expanded its market with availability in faux/vegan leather made from synthetic textile traditional polyurethane (PU).
With the knowledge that traditional PU contains chemicals and fossilfuels armful to people and the planet, innovators have been hard at work to replace it with a synthetic sustainable textile made from plants. Good start with plantbased textiles like Pinatex pineapple leaves and Desserto cactus leaves however they still include a percentage of PU in their composition so are no biodegradable.
Moving into faux/vegan leather made from synthetic textile traditional polyurethane (PU) and embraced by wider audiences of vegans and people who abhorred and resiled from the killing and use of animals for human clothing, diet etc, the timelessness of the biker jacket continued with synthetic vegan leather.
James&Co started as a vegan fashion brand in 2021 offering outerwear and of course the timeless biker jacket in synthetic vegan leather. In 2018 we transitioned to a vegan sustainable fashion brand and ended the use of traditional PU switching to the more sustainable plantbased textiles.
In 2022 we became aware of the awesome development of 100% plantbased zero-plastic synthetic leather textile MIRUM®. Sustainable and biodegradable. So we took a further pioneering step towards ending the use of plastics in fashion and ended tailoring our fashion products in the plant-based textiles that contain PU to any degree. The James&Co brand of fashion style with plantbased zeroplastic textiles.
You can read an overview of the James&Co journey to sustainable synthetic leathers. For an in-depth look into the imperatives and opportunities of ditching toxic plastic polyurethane and embracing plantbased alternatives get the 4th ed of book by the James&Co founder For The Planet By 2030: Why We Need To Switch To Sustainable Leather.
We are now on the track of transitioning the tailoring or all leather-look fashion pieces to MIRUM® with expected delivery dates of first pieces being Q1 2023.
Tiffany jacket has always been a favourite so pending its availability in MIRUM® our esteemed manufacturer is making the style in 100% organic cotton denim. Biker style + sustainable denim textile + James&Co branding. How good is that!
Pre-order Tiffany in 100% organic cotton denim now and we will gift you a Beth canopy bay sun hat for women to thank you for your patience and trust in us to await the 30 day delivery.
A reminder that all purchases of a James&Co product give donations to 2 supported charities.
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