Paul Smith Red Ear Jeans

We now have a pair of Paul Smith Red Ear collection jeans for you.

These jeans are truley special and the Red Ear jeans collection is one of the most sought after from jean enthusiasts every where. And heres why..

• Cotton is sourced from around the world. Various types and length of yarn make each Red Ear Denim different in character. This is spun, Hank dyed and woven on wooden shuttle looms in Japan

• Hank dying is a lengthy process that involves dipping the cotton hanks in natural indigo, waiting for it to dry and dipping it again. This is repeated up to 10 times in order to achieve the deepest indigo blue

• Wooden shuttle looms are very old. They date back to the 1920’s and have not been used in denim manufacturing since 1970’s. To run these machines requires much more attention than modern looms and they are difficult to maintain. Production is very slow and the weave is very irregular. This process makes the denim look very special

• The cotton yarn is wrapped around a small wooden spindle. This is placed inside a wooden shuttle that is passed back and forth across the width of the loom. Weaving a loop making a clean finish on the edge. This is called the selvedge. Traditionally with a red stripe on each side and referred to as ‘Akamimi’ in Japanese. This translates as ‘Red Ear’

• The fabric width is narrow. Around 75cm (half the width) of standard fabric purposely made for the jeans. This means that the front and back part of the leg can be cut out next to each other. Making the inside of both side seams selvedge edged

• The jeans are sent together with a traditional chain stitch. This firstly allows seams to stretch without breaking, but most importantly allows the seams to wrinkle and slightly pucker with washing giving real character and texture

• The most famous of these sewing machines is the union special. This machine chain stitches the hem in 1 process and slightly skews the hem

• Eclectic designs are inspired by traditional English work clothing from Paul’s own archive. Great effort is taken to give each garment it’s own character and history . They are not just washed but carefully worn in and repaired

To view the Paul Smith Red Ear Jeans

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