Indigo blue has been a dominant colour in the fashion market this year, and in Japan, the trend has not only been limited to pure denim.A broad range of ‘denim-like’ textiles has also been created through advancements in innovative fabrics, combined with sophisticated craftsmanship, ranging from casual to elegant styles.

Trendy ‘novel’ denim

YAGI TSUSHO LIMITED offers a rich selection of flocked and printed denim fabrics. The company has the advantage of a global network of distributors, which allows it to keep abreast of the latest fashion trends ahead of the competition, and reflect these trends in its development of new textiles.

In response to the growing interest in novel indigo fabrics, the company has launched materials featuring slub yarn used as the warp. Denim fabrics are woven in Okayama, and then printed in Kyoto.

This skilful combination of traditional technologies, cultivated in Japan’s various manufacturing regions, is one of the company’s unique characteristics.

YAGI TSUSHO LIMITED offers a rich selection of flocked and printed denim fabrics

YAGI TSUSHO LIMITED plans to unveil a range of denim fabrics designed mainly for bottoms at this year’s Milano Unica trade show. Specifically, the company will emphasise its popular selvedge denim, which blends the high quality inherent in domestic manufacturing with a stylish vintage feel.

Going forward, the company plans to focus its efforts on exporting jeans that are entirely made in Japan, from the fabric weaving to the sewing.

A reputation based on manufacturing, with a focus on denim textiles

SHOWA Co., Ltd. is a weaving company located in the Bingo production cluster in Hiroshima Prefecture, one of Japan’s traditional denim manufacturing regions.

The company is investing significantly in the development of sophisticated textiles, with a focus on denim fabrics. The wool denim originally developed by SHOWA Co., Ltd. is recognised for its exquisite touch and refined glossy quality, devoid of the coarse feel traditionally associated with denim.

This fabric gained a Première Vision (PV) Award at the first edition of the event in Paris.

“The Miracle Indigo Series” (Showa)

SHOWA Co., Ltd.’s signature product is the Miracle Indigo Series, which uses fine-count rope-dyeing yarn as the warp. The fine-count yarn is about one-tenth the thickness of the warp normally used in denim manufacturing, and is woven into the thin, soft lightweight denim fabric.

In Japan, ‘knit-like denim’ has been gaining popularity recently. Although the fabric is woven, it shares similar characteristics with knitted textiles, such as a supple texture, elasticity, outstanding stretch, thinness, and light weight, which makes it perfect for shirts and other top garments.

Processing technology that blends exquisite skills with age-old experience

SANYO SENKO Co., Ltd. is one of the few fabric dyeing and finishing factories capable of mass-producing indigo-dyed fabrics. The company is recognised not only for its plain solid blue fabrics, but also for its skilfully crafted textiles that combine discharge dyeing and special prints.

SANYO SENKO Co., Ltd. has a solid reputation as a manufacturer of outstanding products that combine different types of processing, including the dyeing technique called dan-ochi bassen, in which multiple patterns are extracted at once.

Bassen, or discharge printing, is the company’s signature dyeing technique, which it has developed and refined since its establishment. Last year, SANYO SENKO Co., Ltd. announced a variation of this technique – dan-ochi bassen.

The mainstream approach to bassen is to extract the patterns one by one, but in dan-ochi bassen multiple patterns are used simultaneously, thus making it possible to create complex designs with different dye densities.

Created in collaboration with Liberty Japan using dan-ochi bassen, this fabric is an expression of the delicate flower patterns that are characteristic of Liberty. (SANYO SENKO)

The discharge printing agent is colourless and transparent, and the finished look of the fabric cannot be seen until it goes through the washing process, but the craftsmen of the company extract all patterns at once.

Their experience and skills, combined with the innovative technology used in the development of the discharge printing agent, enable unique and sophisticated fabric processing.

Support from premium US jeans brands

TORAY INTERNATIONAL, Inc. has introduced stretch materials to use in denim textiles. The unique fabrics and flexible manufacturing, realised through yarn arrangement, has garnered strong support for the company, which has a broad customer base among premium US jeans brands.

Since last year, TORAY INTERNATIONAL, Inc. has exhibited at various international events, such as Munich Fabric Start in Germany and Denim By Première Vision in Spain, and its products have been adopted by numerous high-end brands in Italy, Germany, and France.

The popular MIRACLE AIR, 20% more lightweight than 100% cotton fabrics. (TORAY INTERNATIONAL)

TORAY’s most popular product is the lightweight synthetic fibre MIRACLE AIR. Polyester yarn with a 50% hollow ratio is used for the weft, reducing weight by approximately 20% compared with fabrics made from 100% cotton.

MIRACLE AIR has the thick and solid texture traditionally associated with denim fabrics, but with a light and comfortable feel.

This year, the company has developed a new nylon-type denim fabric. At Denim By Première Vision, its most popular products were denim jackets made with indigo rope-dyed fibres for the warp, drawn through the weft’s yarn-dyed nylon fibres.