When shopping for a new pair of denim, a few questions might come to mind:

Would these jeans be a good staple in my closet for years to come?
Will the style stand the test of time in the trend cycle?
Are these jeans ethically and sustainably made?

These questions are all forms of thinking through whether a purchase will be sustainable. The third question however, is focused more on environmental sustainability, something more and more Americans are concerned about as the years go by. As a result, brands are responding in creative ways to reduce their negative impact on our planet. In this blog we will explore 2 of Gladiola’s favorite denim brands that we believe are sustainable for not only your closet, but for the planet.

Did you know Citizens of Humanity and AGOLDE are sister companies?

They each showcase a unique directional voice, but they are wonderfully bound by a foundation of commitment to quality and uncompromising standards.

When you look inside a pair of AGOLDE or Citizens of Humanity jeans and read the fabric tag, you may notice that most will have a fabric content that includes Regenerative Cotton or Recycled Cotton. Regenerative farming cultivates a healthy, harmonious relationship between cotton plants, the soil, and the Earth’s atmosphere. Using regenerative methods, farmers are able to reduce carbon emissions and restore soil health, leading to higher crop yields with lower negative impact. Their Recycled Denim is created by sorting materials that are at the end of their lifespan, shredding, cleaning, and then they are re-spun into a new blended yarn that is used to create new fabrics.
COH and AGOLDE use high efficiency dye and wash machines, which reduces their water, chemical usage, and power by more than 50% in comparison to conventional machines. Fun fact: they can fit up to 120 pairs of jeans at a time! Their high efficiency dryers use 20-30% less gas and energy than conventional dryers.
Their pocketing is made with recycled plastic bottles and post-industrial waste collected from a recycling network. The plastic waste material is ground, washed, and reformulated into high-quality micro-sized chips. The chips are melted and formed into fibers that are spun into yarn, also known as REPREVE yarn. The yarn is then woven with cotton and virgin polyester into textiles with enhanced stability.
All of their paper labels and tags are crafted using recycled paper only.
For their blue jeans, they use a natural indigo dye extracted from the plant “Indigofera Tinctoria.” For other colors, they use vegetable dyes made from the bark of an Acacia Tree.
Rather than rely on conventional stone-washing, the COH and AGOLDE team has mixed and tested several natural enzymes that are applied when washing the denim in order to achieve authentic distressing. Only specially sourced, green-certified substitutes are used.
All of their standard hardware trims for Citizens and AGOLDE are all sustainably manufactured using raw materials that contain 75% of recycled scraps from previous processes. As of Spring '22, these trims have no galvanic coatings that lead to no mud or galvanic waste.
Jeans are cut to order to let the demand of their products drive the production and supply to minimize excess products.

There are many more measures that Citizens of Humanity and AGOLDE have taken to be more sustainable than what we have outlined here that can be found on their website. Their concluding quote on this topic for the consumer reads:

“We want you to feel good wearing your jeans not only because you feel comfortable and fashion-forward wearing them, but you know that they were crafted with an attention to reducing the impact on the environment.”