We all have a pair of jeans – or even several – in our closet. But behind this distinctive and desirable garment, lies an object with a strong environmental and human impact. Decryption.

Every year, 5 billion pairs of jeans are produced and 2.3 billion sold, including 63 million in France! This shows how universal these sturdy blue pants have become, worn by everyone, from 3 to 90 years old, from workers to senior executives, from the United States to Cambodia.
Where exactly does it come from? How and by whom is it produced?
From the Wild West to punks, from cotton fields to Chinese factories, from specialist brands to fast fashion chains, a short saga of jeans and analysis of the ways to offer them a future more in line with Clean Fashion , better for men and the planet.

The history of jeans shapes the 20th century

Originally, jeans or denim?

Fashion historians have been unable to pinpoint the exact origins of jeans, which are now commonly confused with denim. It is known that in the Middle Ages, cotton was mixed with linen or wool in fabrics called fustian. Northern Italy produced large quantities of this fabric, which was exported throughout Europe, particularly to France, where it was used in sailors' trousers and also in ships' sails.

In Nîmes, weavers tried to reproduce this fabric, without success. In the 17th century, they developed another fabric, a wool and silk twill known as denim (from Nîmes). This beige canvas, renowned for its resistance, used as work clothing by shepherds and Cévennes farmers, was subsequently exported to Genoa and dyed indigo blue (Genoa blue) to make it a cheap, resistant garment, less dirty than light beige. These fabrics exported to England are found under the name jean or jeane in the registers of the Port of London. In short, from the Nîmes canvas dyed with Genoa blue, denim and blue jeans were born.

As for clothing, it appeared with the rise of cotton cultivation in the southern United States in the 19th century and the Gold Rush. A Jewish tailor from Bavaria, a certain Levi Strauss, created in the 1850s for gold prospectors and lumberjacks, work trousers cut from his cotton tent canvas and reinforced with copper rivets at sensitive points (pockets, flies). The patent was filed in 1873.

From the Wild West to Hollywood

The preserve of cowboys in Lévi-Strauss advertising, these cheap and durable trousers became the basic clothing of farmers and workers during the Great Depression of the 1930s. After the Second World War, the United States flooded the European market with war surpluses, including jeans. And when Hollywood got hold of them, and Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando and James Dean made them their emblem, the phenomenon took on a whole new dimension. Younger generations seized on them and made them a sign of protest and protest.

From counterculture to mass manufacturing

The life cycle of jeans, an environmental and human catastrophe

A great traveler

The production cycle of a pair of jeans involves many steps: growing cotton fibers, processing and spinning, dyeing, weaving, cutting and making, washing and finishing. Then it is packaged, shipped, stored and finally put on sale. However, each of these steps corresponds to a different know-how and geographical area.

Cotton is grown in India, Australia or Africa, spinning is done in Pakistan, dyeing in China, manufacturing and washing take place mainly in Turkey, while threads and finishing are done in the West or in Japan.

This ultra-globalized production and the journeys from one continent to another are responsible for an enormous carbon footprint : it is estimated that a denim garment can travel up to 65,000 km – or 1.5 times the circumference of the Earth – before landing in our wardrobes. Its _CO2 emissions are estimated at 20 kg on average and up to 40 kg. This heavy toll also includes the _CO2 emissions required for growing cotton, the use of agricultural machinery, spinning, weaving and factory assembly work.

A big polluter

All these steps are also energy-intensive and/or polluting.

• Water glutton

The production of a pair of jeans consumes between 7,000 and 10,000 liters of water according to ADEME, 3,781 liters according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The first step, and not the least, is the production of the raw material, cotton. Cotton fields only cover 3% of cultivated land, but it is the third most irrigated agricultural activity after rice and soybeans. Dyeing jeans and washing them are also big consumers of water.

• Full of toxic products

To ensure a high yield, its cultivation requires intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides . Cotton is mainly planted in regions where pesticide regulations are particularly flexible. India, in particular, allows the use of diethion, a highly toxic insecticide that is dangerous for the brain, heart and lungs and suspected of being carcinogenic. In order to limit its use, 82% of cotton grown today is genetically modified. However, demand is such that even GM cotton cannot do without these products entirely.

The blue dyeing of denim, when it is still obtained using indigo, requires huge quantities of water and pollutes wastewater. But it is often produced using synthetic products containing, in particular, chlorine and heavy metals. In Southeast Asia, these products are released into nature without prior treatment, where they infiltrate the soil and water tables.

• An equally polluting use

A study conducted by Levis on the life cycle of a 501 showed a surprising fact: the environmental impact of using a pair of jeans is almost as important as its production. In fact, according to this study, its impact is broken down as follows:

• Fiber culture: 9%
• Fabric production: 27%
• Cutting and making: 8%
• Washout: 5%
• Transport and resale: 11%
• Consumer maintenance: 37%
• End of life: 3%

The astonishing figure of 37% that assesses consumer maintenance – which would reach 48% according to ADEME – varies according to the frequency of washing and the type of detergent used (the French and Americans wash their jeans after wearing them 2.5 times while the Chinese wear them 4 times), but also whether they are machine dried and ironed. In the United States and Japan, many consumers even take their jeans to the dry cleaners!
What this study does not say, but what the experts reveal: if jeans pollute during their use, it is because of the many chemicals used during their production – often not authorized in Europe – and which are released when they are washed! Their end of life is also problematic, because the composite finished products (presence of Lycra® or elastane, rivets, etc.) complicate their decomposition, and therefore their reassembly.

A human cost

All employees working with jeans are affected.

In cotton fields, farmers breathe toxic chemicals with high rates of respiratory illness and cancer, as do workers in China's dye factories.

But another process is just as devastating. Sandblasting, an industrial method used to age jeans (make them less rigid) and fade them, propels sand or silica powder at very high speeds onto the denim fabric. This technique exposes workers to very volatile fine particles that lodge in the lungs and cause respiratory irritation, silicosis and cancer. Fortunately, it is now banned in most Western countries. Turkey, once a major bastion of sandblasting, put an end to it in 2009. The following year, under pressure from the “This Jeans is Deadly” campaign, more than 40 major denim brands followed suit and banned sandblasting. However, this method is still in use today – particularly in China – along with other equally harmful techniques such as manual sanding or chemical treatments with potassium permanganate.
Furthermore, as with other clothing, denim is mainly produced in countries where workers' rights are not as controlled and protected as in Europe. Poor hygiene and safety conditions, piecework wages, no social or health protection, and sometimes forced or child labor...

Towards cleaner jeans

The denim industry was one of the first to be singled out, so it was one of the first to initiate its socio-environmental transition. Initiatives have been taken at all stages. And if in 2020, less than 5% of jeans were eco-designed, avenues are beginning to emerge.

More sustainable raw materials

The use of organic cotton reduces soil acidification and marine eutrophication by 25%, and the occupation of agricultural land and water consumption by 60%. But today it only represents 1% of the cotton produced.

Major jean makers, such as Levis or Lee, are working on alternatives to cotton, such as linen, cottonized hemp or Tencel™, rustic and sustainable materials, less water-consuming, less chemical-producing and more environmentally friendly. A young French brand (1083 is the distance between the two furthest points in France.), which produces jeans that are almost 100% Made in France, has even created the Infini, made from recycled polyester (from plastic bottles and marine waste), returnable and infinitely recyclable.

On the labels, the consumer can look for GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standards) labels ensuring traceable organic cotton that meets social and environmental criteria, or BlueSign, C2C Certified™ ensuring that the finished textile or garment is free of ZDHC (Zero Discharge Hazardous Chemicals) and can therefore be integrated into a circular chain.

Less polluting dyes

Traditional indigo is the least polluting way to dye jeans. Using recycled fibres sorted by colour also helps to limit the impact of this step, although they are systematically re-coloured. Lee tackled the dyeing problem with Indigood, a foam dye that reduces chemical use by 89% and energy consumption by 65%, and uses no water at all.

Laser and ozone treatments

There are “clean” alternatives to sanding and grinding. To make jeans look worn, lasers are used to create faded stripes and ozone – instead of water – is used to fade the denim. The laser alters the surface of the thread by burning. Bleach washing is replaced by ozone applied to damp jeans that are then rinsed. The ozone, which is then converted into oxygen, reduces energy consumption and water consumption.

More and more brands are launching more responsible denim collections or capsules. Levis has developed around twenty non-patented techniques, and therefore open to all, to save water in manufacturing. At Lee, the "Back To Nature" line offers totally biodegradable pieces made from cotton and linen threads without rivets.

There remains a major problem: the recyclability of jeans. On this point, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation has established specifications for producing jeans in a circular economy: The Jeans Redesign. And leasing, rental, upcycling* and repair initiatives are emerging.
It's true, the perfect pair of jeans doesn't exist yet, but would you be ready to give up this legendary and essential piece of clothing?

*UPCYCLING: why not treat yourself to a piece of recycled denim on the Bagarreuse website?

@bagarreuseparis is a young Parisian ready-to-wear brand, created by Simon and Julia in November 2020. An eco-responsible brand that makes its collections exclusively from fabric scraps; upcycling is therefore at the heart of their concept… and their brand name. In the last 5 letters of Bagarreuse, you can read RE-USE!