DENIMS

The youth trend

 HISTORY OF DENIMS
• The story of jeans begins in the mid-19th
century simultaneously in two European cities:
• Nîmes in France, where the fabric itself was
created, which led to the name “denim”.
• Genoa in Italy, where the color comes from,
called in French “Bleu de Gênes” which led to
the expression “blue jeans”.
• The fabric and colour come together to become
the jeans, denim.
• The denims are one of the most popular fabrics
in this century amongst the youth generation
innovation and development
• Comfort,
• Performance and
• Environment friendliness of different processes
 INNOVATION IN FIELD OF RAW MATERIAL
• Elastane fibers are incorporated into the fabric.
• Lycra and Spandex are used in weft yarn. Ring and open-end core spun yarns are
also used in denim to provide stretch property.
• Elastic ply yarns produced on TFO are also used to make stretch denim fabrics. Apart
from the multi-component, Bi component synthetic filament yarns are also used to
provide stretch.
• To improve performance, synthetic fibers blended with natural fibers are used. One
of such blends is blend of Nylon 6.6 and cotton. This fabric shows the traditional
look and feel but performance is better than the 100 per cent cotton denim in terms
of better abrasion resistance. So, the durability of the fabric is more than the 100
per cent cotton denim.
• Other synthetic fibers such as polyester and polypropylene fibers are also used. For
making softer denim fabrics especially for women wear, blend of Cupro, Modal,
Promodal, Tencel, and Rayon are being used. Bamboo fibers, hemp fibers and their
blends are being used to make denim fabrics.
INNOVATION IN SPINNING OF DENIMS
• We generally manufacture the 100% cotton yarn for denim but now a days
this trend has changed to manufacturing of stretch yarns blended, useof
polyester cotton blends etc.
• The usual count range of denim warp yarns is 50 to 90 tex and weft yarns is
75 to 120 tex; finer yarns as fine as 25 tex in twill or plain weave are often
used in denim shirts.
• To impart fancy effect, different kinds of fancy yarns are being used. The
examples of such yarn are slub yarn and multi-count yarn. The slub can vary
in terms of thickness, length and twist. Such yarns can be manufactured at
ring spinning and OE spinning machines by attaching special attachment. One
of such attachments is Amsler control. Such fabrics give very unique effect
after washing treatment.
INNOVATION IN DYEING OF DENIMS
• GENERALLY IN DENIMS, WE USED TO USE INDIGO DYED WARP THREADS AND
WHITE WEFT THREADS.
• Dyeing of warp yarns is done either by rope dyeing method or Slasher dyeing
method. Rope dyeing is considered better in many aspects such as higher
production, long runs, better dry and wet fastness and lot-to- lot shade consistency.
Indigo dyes are generally used to dye warp yarns. In some cases sulphur black and
blue dye can also be applied before indigo dyeing to achieve darker shades.
Sometimes, sulphur dyes are also applied after the yarn is indigo dyed.
• A lot of research is taking place to develop dyeing process which produces low
impact on environment.
• Clariant has developed a range of low sulphide dyestuff and process to obtain
various indigo shades at low dyeing cycle to reduce the consumption of water.
• Dyester has patented Indigo Vat 40 per cent solution. It offers various shades of
blue and claims 60-70 per cent reduction in consumption of Sodium hydrosulphite
• With Advanced Denim, the trendy used look or vintage style can be achieved with
eco-friendlier ozone and laser treatment and completely without using aggressive
chemicals. Unlike conventionally dyed jeans which fade more with every wash,
thanks to Advanced Denim the original color is preserved for much longer. Besides
the optical effects, there is also a choice of finishing styles that make the jeans
material ultra- soft, dirt resistant, water repellent or easy to clean.
• The Advanced Denim’s Pad/Sizing-Ox process offers jeans manufacturers not only
completely new opportunities to establish a market presence with individual
creations, but also many other benefits: the costs of energy and water are
drastically reduced, production times and labor costs decrease. Compared to indigo
dyeing corrections and changes of color are easier and quicker, which also makes
smaller production runs for specific market niches more profitable. Moreover, the
sulfur dye Diresul RDT has only a low sulfide content, and no unpleasant odors
develop during production. The concentrated, liquid dyes are also free of heavy
metals and ensure easy and safe handling during manufacture.
• The Advanced Denim’s Pad/Sizing-Ox process differs from traditional indigo
dyeing in two main respects: firstly, a new eco-friendlier generation of
concentrated, liquid sulfur dyes is used that requires only a single, sugar-
based reducing agent and a single dyeing box. Secondly, only a single
combined oxidation and sizing box is required. All the other production steps
are eliminated.
• Sulfur dyes possess not only oxygen groups but also sulfur-containing
functional groups. These »thiols« can crosslink both with each other and, via
the fixing agent, very strongly to the fiber. Both of these together provide
particularly strong color fastness and high abrasion resistance. This is why
with Advanced Denim’s Pad/Sizing-Ox a single dyeing box is enough to color
the fiber more permanently.
• The innovative technology of Advanced Denim enables a more eco-
friendly and much shorter production process. Compared to indigo
dyeing it saves up to 92 percent water, 30 percent energy and 87
percent cotton waste. Moreover, it produces absolutely no effluents.
 Wabash- The Special Indigo Dyed Look
• Wabash – Indigo Discharge Dyeing , refers to the process of creating patterns and prints on
a fabric base that is dyed in Indigo. The phrase discharge dyeing is almost an oxymoron,
because the process by which a Wabash print is created is actually not dyeing but
removing parts of the already dyed indigo fabric to create a pattern or print. The base
indigo dyed fabric goes through an oxidation process to remove parts of the dye in the
form of a pattern.
• Wabash looks like quite a formal fabric, but in fact it was commonly used for work wear
from the early 1800s through to the early 1900s, very often as uniforms for the massive US
railroads work force. Finding out a lot about Wabash is very difficult, but we believe there
were 2 ways in which the dots were originally “applied” to the base fabric:
• The pattern would be applied as a block print to the undyed fabric with a starch based
“resist” and then dyed, the dye not adhering to the resistant pattern; and
• The fabric was dyed and then the pattern bleached into the fabric – this was done by
applying a mildly acidic solution to the cloth via copper rollers with the pattern raised from
the surface of the roller, a process known as discharge printing.
Wabash by Iron Heart The Works
INNOVATION IN MANUFACTURING OF DENIM
• Traditionally Blue Denim is warp faced cotton fabric with 3 x 1 twill construction
with warp being dyed in a solid colour and weft left un-dyed.
• For comfort and performance of stretchability the fabric manufacturing is shifted
towards the knitting give softer feel and better effect.
• Different types of weaves are now in trends and popular in youth and market.
• Denim fabrics are mostly woven on high speed air-jet looms. Various loom
manufacturers are offering a number of modifications to weave fault free high
quality fabric. The modifications are done in the frame structure of loom to
minimize vibrations, pre-winder, auxiliary nozzles, stretch nozzles, relay nozzles
and weft brake system. Traditionally denim is 3/1 right hand twill fabric. Nowadays
2/1 twill, broken twill, zig-zag twill, reverse twill, Herringbone twill weaves are
used in denim fabrics.
 INNOVATIONS IN DENIM WASHING
• Todays youth is always looking for new looks in market with trending fashion.
• Washing of denim garments produce different effects and help in innovating
the designs.
• Washing of denim garments is one of the most important processes. This
process adds a lot of value to the final garment. In the washing process,
fading effect is imparted to the denim products. There are many methods to
impart faded effects. The traditionally washing is done using any of the
methods or combinations such as stone washing, washing with strong
bleaching agents such as sodium hypochlorite, potassium per magnet.
• These processes are not environment friendly. Alternative methods have been developed.
• Cellulases enzymes are used in place of pumice stone to impart abraded effect.
• Laccase based bleaching technique is developed. This enzyme only attacks indigo dyed
yarn bit does affect nature of white weft yarn. It can also be used to bleach fabrics
containing elastane filaments without losing stretch property.
• Laser based techniques are used to give faded effect. Further this technique can also be
used to create motifs on the denim fabrics.
• Ozone base denim washing treatments have been developed. In this process, ozone gas is
used as bleaching agent, which attacks indigo dyes and destroy to create faded look.
• Functional finishes such as antibacterial finishes, UV-protection finishes are applied on
denim fabrics to improve functional performances of denim fabrics. To enhance the
durability of the finished fabric, nano encapsulation of the herbal extracts were performed
and the results showed good resistance for microbes even after 30 industrial washes. The
use of nano-clay is also reported to impart old look, soft handle, flame retardant and
antibacterial properties to denim fabrics.