Today’s confection process is incredibly time-consuming and complex, uses vast amounts of energy, and often requires significant transport between different production facilities before the article finally reaches the hands of the consumer.

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First, the raw material, cotton, is grown and harvested somewhere, most likely in India or China, picked and then processed by machines. It is then twisted (spun) and dyed and rolled onto large spools. After spinning, the threads are woven into twill, a fabric woven with vertical warp and horizontal weft threads overlapping in such a way to create a surface of diagonal parallel ridges, resulting in an incredibly sturdy denim fabric. 

 

The fabric must then be washed. This step is fabric finishing, which is used to correct and prevent issues of dimensional stability (for example, ‘unfinished’ denim doesn’t have any dimensional stability; once washed, the jeans will shrink and likely twist the legs in an odd manner). 

 

After washing, the fabric is rolled out on a long table in multiple, smooth layers. The various pieces which will make up the jeans are mapped out onto the denim, and cut with some sort of sharp instrument (anywhere from 20 to 200 layers of fabric can be cut at once, depending on the thickness of the fabric and the tool used). Then, the pieces are sewn together, using complex machines and different types of stitches for different areas of the garment. During this process, the zipper and pockets are added, and then the garment finishings (such as the rivets, button, and labels). 

 

Secondary creative finishes can now be used to give the fabric a different look or feel, such as distressing, whiskering, or fading... This labour-intensive job is done by hand and ‘trained craftsmen use sandpaper, sanding blocks and other sanding tools to abrade the denim and remove the colour.’ 

 

Finally, the finished jeans are most likely washed again, perhaps a few times, to help stabilise the colour and prevent the indigo dye from bleeding. They are then shipped to the company’s warehouse in the US, and either purchased online or in store.