Justine Aldersey-Williams, a textile artist and teacher at The Wild Dyery in Wirral, UK, set herself the challenging task of growing a pair of jeans from scratch. She was driven by her concern for the environmental impact of the fashion industry, which sells 70 million pairs of jeans in the UK every year. Aldersey-Williams’ experiment aimed to demonstrate how native textile crops could be reintroduced to clothing production and avoid the carbon impact of cotton production, which needs an excessive amount of water and is one of the most harmful industries to the environment.
The project benefited from the collaboration of Homegrown Homespun regenerative fashion pilot project with Community Clothing, led by Great British Sewing Bee judge Patrick Grant, North West England Fibreshed, founded by Aldersey-Williams, and The Super Slow Way arts commissioning organisation. The aim was to investigate the feasibility of producing homegrown, home-dyed, and homespun jeans.
Aldersey-Williams spent nine months learning to spin before handling her crop, and another nine weeks to spin her own linen. After this, she enlisted local weaver Kirsty Jean Leadbetter of The Liverpool Weaving Company, who weaved the fabric, and denim designer Mohsin Sajid, who sewed the jeans. She suggested growing one’s fabric to develop a better relationship with clothing and increase the respect for one’s items.
Growing a pair of jeans underlines the urgency of tackling the fashion industry’s environmental impact, which generates significant waste, pollution, and social injustice. The experiment led by Aldersey-Williams in the UK shows a practical approach to reducing the carbon cost of cotton production and highlights the importance of locally growing organic crops
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