My partner managed a denim store while at university for many years, selling various types of jeans, jackets, shirts, raw, washed, stretch, everything. I would stop in often to loiter, hang out, try things on, and see her. She taught me a lot about denim, the different weights, and the different cuts. By this point it was all learning, I was always a fan of denim, but didn't really know why.

One of the first things men get into with fashion is often selvedge denim, and Japanese denim in particular. It's a palatable note of quality, longevity and timeless style. I, like many men, went through my phase of Red Wing boots and selvedge denim, and although it felt like a phase, for most of us it was a time of understanding quality of quantity, and where our garments came from. One of those places is Kojima.

Kojima is known as the Japanese home of denim. There's the 'Denim Street' a street lined with denim stores, jeans hanging from powerlines, indigo coffee, and anything else they could come up with. Although the Denim Street is fun, it's more a tourism thing than anything, and the real business happens not too far away at the numerous factories producing denim fabric and finished garments. 

I currently work with Japan Blue - one of the big players in selvedge denim, and original names in making it popular again. They have two key brands, Momotaro and Japan Blue. Underneath this, they make the fabric from scratch and produce everything in Kojima and local neighbouring towns. I was lucky to be invited to their factory to see how they make their selvedge denim, what it smells like fresh of the loom, and what's kept menswear in a chokehold for the past 50+ years.

Due to production scale, and timelines, I was only allowed to shoot close up imagery - hence the lack of wide shots.

The thing that struck me most about selvedge denim production is the sheer violence of the operation. If anything, it's a bit like an engine being revved beyond its limits. A 13b rotary spinning maybe a little faster than it should, or a lumpy cammed V8 sounding like a Spitfire.

Everything smashes, bashes, and hits each other in order to create something as arguably simple as denim. It's not a delicate process, the cotton is fed into the machine, and then smashed together. You wind up seeing elements of the loom effectively punching each other in order to create the final product. 

From there we had free reign over their entire swatch library. Crazy huge, everything you could ever dream of, and after a while you really need to step back at 'smell the coffee'. We spent about 2 hours going through everything, making selects (some of which are appearing in SS27), and discussing what they're working on next. 

Thanks to the team at Japan Blue for their hospitality.