BY RIVET-SOURCING JOURNAL

Vintage and worn jeans, with their localized faded effect on knees, pockets and highlighted details, remain attractive and fashionable. But the way to achieve such looks in production is no longer compatible with the emerging approach to a more sustainable denim industry.

The industry has been well aware of the impact of creating such effects with potassium permanganate, a strong oxidizing agent harmful to operators and the environment.

“Everyone in the denim industry tried to find a replacement, and at Soko, we did the same, but suddenly we realized that all those alternatives just weren’t the right solution,” said Matteo Urbini, Soko’s managing director. “We decided to take a totally different approach; throwing away all previous concepts and looking at the project from a different angle. Because real innovations only come if you change the rules of the game and your mentality.”

At the Soko Innovation Hub—a recently created in-house research and development lab—the team found the solution with Lumia, an advanced process that can achieve similar denim fading effects as potassium permanganate but in a radically different way.