How 4-Way Stretch Selvedge Denim Is Made
In a world where stretch denim outsells rigid denim at a rate of four to one — at least, that’s according to a US cotton growers’ collective — it can be hard to grasp the fact that some stretch jeans are better than others.
It’s not just the fact that there are several different ways that fabric specialists create the yarn that’s woven into denim. There are also different ways to weave the yarn once it’s created, and there are different degrees of stretch and directions of stretch that a denim can exhibit.
To help explain these differences we invited Nick from Stridewise, an intrepid explorer of textiles and menswear across the globe, to our Los Angeles facility. Check out the internet’s best explainer of stretch vs non stretch denim.
Here’s a quick summary:
The Two Main Kinds of Stretch Denim
Almost every brand on Earth employs one of two methods to make a stretchy yarn: core spun yarns or filament twisted yarns, which are also called covered yarns.
In both cases, the cotton is blended with a synthetic fiber: typically elastane, spandex, lycra, and/or polyurethane. There are technical differences between these, but practically speaking they refer to the same petroleum byproduct.
The most popular method is the filament twisted yarn, which twists the “poly” and the cotton together. It’s the cheaper method, but it exposes more of the synthetic fibers, so the final product is a fabric that’s a little shinier and won’t fade the way traditional denim will.
At Kato we use core spun yarn: instead of twisting the two different yarns together, we wrap the cotton around the poly so that it’s completely encased. You might catch a glimpse of the poly when the fabric is stretched, but core spun yarn wears very differently. Because the exterior is all cotton, the dye will slowly chip away and expose the cotton beneath it exactly like rigid denim.
Two-Way vs Four-Way Stretch
Denim has threads that run in two directions: the warp goes vertically and the weft horizontally. Inexpensive stretch jeans just use stretchy yarns for the weft — after all, we’re more likely to stretch in that direction during our daily life than we are to stretch the jean vertically.
But that doesn’t mean we never put any vertical tension on the fabric, and when both the warp and weft are made of core spun yarns, you get stretchy comfort in 360 degrees: any way you move, the jeans will move with you.
Four-Way Stretch Selvedge Denim
This brings us to Hiroshi Kato’s most unique achievement: we’re one of the only brands on Earth that produce four-way stretch denim on vintage shuttle looms. That’s what selvedge denim means: unlike the projectile looms that make almost all of the world’s denim, selvedge is made on shuttle looms.
They make denim ten times more slowly and they’re much more expensive to use and maintain, but it makes denim that tends to be stronger and have more character. Above all, selvedge denim is a monument to our past: before fast fashion, people made things in a more thoughtful, slow, and skillful way.
If you think of stretch denim as something cheap and simple, think again. There is a way to turn stretch jeans into an artform, and at Hiroshi Kato, we’ve perfected the process.
Read more in our guide to 4-way stretch selvedge denim.
