Trend Direction: NANTUCKET

Close up - Lovin' America on holiday

©American Family Style, Viking Studio Books 1988

Stars and stripes combine with Breton stripes and ripped whites from Mother jeans.

Matelot stripes and weathered wooden fishing boats go hand in hand in Martha's Vineyard.

©TheDenimEye2016

Fine dobby stripes from Kuroki Denim Japan.

©TheDenimEye2016

Patches and pieces of contrast denim and stripes in this oversized shirt from Egome denim, Jakarta.

©TheDenimEye2016

©American Family Style, Viking Studio Books 1988

 And I love the colour.  Wish you were here!

Trend Direction: NANTUCKET

Trend - Nantucket

It's natural; It's bluer than blue; It's sunny sand; It's the freedom of sail.  

Sunbleached driftwood and sand shades combine with Breton and deck chair stripes and faded weatherboarding accented by the occasional faded sailors red and bleached aqua. Heavy and natural textures for coarse cotton knit cover ups and rough linen cut offs.

©TheDenimEye2016

Images L-R; ©TheDenimEye2016, ©TheDenimEye2016, ©American Family Style Viking Studio Books 1988

©TheDenimEye, ©SeanSlattery

Trend Direction: SHARP PERFORMERS

Close Up - Active Denim

Coated "knit denims" for a free spirit combined with water repellence.  Fresh and easy styling brings denim and jeans wear into the sports arena.

Bogner printed coated "denim jeans" for skiwear. The fabric is woven nylon for performance abilities the jeans and denim detailing are printed.  They are "pretend" jeans for performance ski.

Below performance jeggings combine with coated denim parka.   Denim lined waxed cagoule skirt that doubles as a groundsheet! Quirky styling details make denim into sportswear fun as well as practical.

Coated feather light plain weave performance jacket with removable hood.

Ruched waist joggers in light coated indigo denim.  Denims are coated for water repellence.

Trend Direction: SHARP PERFORMERS

Brand Spotlight - ALYFE 

As we explore performance denim this month, we have taken the opportunity to showcase a technical denim brand born from lifestyle choices, experiences and the love of living life. 

ALYFE's concept is to fuse form and function and inspire adventure in everyday life. They have created jeans to perform and let you live your active life. Working closely with one of the world's most creative and advanced denim mills and an innovative Turkish factory they have pushed the boundaries of product innovation. Tried and tested vigorously in active lives along with varying climates and environments, ALYFE jeans have been engineered with a perfect fit and clever hidden performance benefits. Currently their collection has been separated into 3 categories of technology; For Living, For Loving and For Lunatics.

Launching in Spring 2017, For Living, provides clever technology for every day life. The fabric has a water repellent coating providing protection from rain and dirt - the high tech coating increases surface tension allowing raindrops to run off the surface easily. While fibres in the denim respond to the body's fluctuating temperature allowing cooling or heating to regulate your body's temperature along with an anti bacterial finish to minimise the need for washing, thus prolonging the indigo colour and features of your jean. Cotton and elastane combine with polyester to give enormous stretch and movement but with massive recovery. 

For Loving created for well being and body enhancing technology - they are the jean that hugs you back. A micro encapsulated coating is a new multi-ingredient active that synergises the benefits of aloe vera, Vitamin E, jojoba oil and creates a sense of well being. While their special finish has skin-smoothing effects, and is absorbed easily into dry skin, it also helps protect and repair skin damage whilst re-mineralising, re-balancing and moisturising. The vitamin E preserves skin from premature ageing. A perfect combination of cotton elastane and polyester has been designed to shape and slim your silhouette and maximise movement. The women's jean comes in a sophisticated dark and a heavily laundered vintage wash, with a high rise slim shape. These jeans have power stretch with excellent recovery. Which means we don't have to worry about dreaded baggy knees! 

For Lunatics provides tough performance technology for adventure. The lunatic jeans come in two fabrics; NANO their strongest and most repellent jean yet and COAT OPC a unique black coated thermo regulating jean. Thermo regulating properties combine with nano water repellency, anti stain and tough fibres along with an anti bacterial finish to minimise the need to wash. For those who want a tougher jean that can react to any environment these two innovative fabrics deliver outstanding performance and comfort. All this clever technology is combined in a fabric with just enough stretch to really aid freedom of movement in all directions. Durable stretch fibres provide excellent recovery properties ensuring the silhouette of the jeans is never compromised. Both jeans come in a slim tapered fit for a street smart silhouette, with the back rise extended and contoured to provide better coverage while active, with additional secure belt loops on the back waistband for extra security. 

A fun feature across all the ALYFE jeans that we love here at The Denim Eye is the clever reflective details - the brands A logo is stitched on the centre back waistband, and the back pocket so when you are scrambling to find your jeans in your dark tent just flash your torch and your ALYFE jeans will illuminate making them easy for you to locate. While a reflective A logo on the turn ups are perfect for all those cycling commuters. 

Behind the Scenes : THE DENIM FABRIC

Making modern denim fabric is a highly technical and mechanised affair.  

The looms are either Rapier looms which are more slow but capable of making great developments.  For speed in production air jet looms are the choice of most Mills. they are less flexible than the rapiers but super fast.

these charming drawings from Danny Southern pictures the processes from weaving through finishing and sanforizing to the final quality inspection.

©TheDenimEye2016

The weaving shed,  finishing ranges and inspection in a modern denim factory today.

©TheDenimEye2016

Trend Direction: SHARP PERFORMERS

Wear It - Sharp Performers

Wear tight high stretch jeggings at ankle skimming lengths for maximum movement. When the water resistance has disappeared on your coated commuter jeans re-spray with Teflon spray. Wash your dark proofed jeans infrequently, if at all! If you think they need refreshing put them into the freezer overnight to eliminate bacteria.  

Performance blends of cotton with other fibres enhances the efficiency of the denims and therefore the comfort of the jean.

Collage ©TheDenimEye2016. images (clockwise from top left) ©sothentheysay.com, ©akm-gsi.com, ©thelocals.dk, ©robolikesifit.tumblr.com, ©itslatingirl.com

Yoga Denim $179

Uniqlo

Anti bacterial treatments such as Silvadur keep your jeans fresh all day. Teflon coating repels water. Coolmax releases moisture from within. Myabi, Acor and Thermalite keep you warm in your jeans. Denims plus performance enhancing technologies are a must to fit the modern lifestyle.  Look out for the hang tags proclaiming the added benefits.

Two brands proclaiming their performance enhancing innovations are Replay and Levi. Replay's Hyperfree® fabric, is on the cutting edge in the world of denim. It promises to ensure comfort and freedom of movement while retaining an authentic and fashionable look, while their innovative Hyperflex® technology combines lycra, polyester and cotton, preventing the fabric from stretching or losing its shape with wear and ensures complete freedom of movement and an authentic denim look. We also have Levi's Commuter™ collection which is "Built to Ride". The collection is defined by five key features; advanced fabric to stay dry, added strength for durability, stretch engineered for comfort, dual action temperature control for added comfort in the elements, and thoughtful design with performance built features for cycling. 

Replay Hyperflex

Replay Hyperfree

Levi Commuter 541

Levi Commuter

Collage ©TheDenimEye2016. Images (clockwise from top left) ©streetpepper.com, ©levi.com, ©zeum-mag.com/Stephanie Lou, ©asos.com, ©asos.com, ©le21eme.com

Below some high street takes on the athleisure denim style with jog jeans giving us comfort with style from our favourite brands.

ASOS WHITE £55

ASOS White £55

Denim&Supply £110

Loyalty & Faith £45

Trend Direction: SHARP PERFORMERS

Close Up - Anti-Bacterial

Antibacterial finish prevents odour in skinny stretch. Fibres and finish are used to enhance performance such as Invista's Dual FX and Lycra Beauty fibres.  Silvadur and Archroma technology are the industry benchmarks for such technology.

Moisture management = greater comfort and confidence in high stretch denims. Coolmax is the brand to choose for cool comfort.    Coatings are a must for fashion and performance imparting wipe clean and water resistant surfaces, these must be breathable. 

To achieve super soft internal touch combined with performance surfaces Lyocell and Modal fibres from Lenzing are perfect blends for soft touch inside.

 ©TheDenimEye2016

©TheDenimEye2016

double lares and air trapping constructions keep warmth in and cold out.

Trend Direction: SHARP PERFORMERS

Close Up - Flextreme

Stretch in all denims for comfort or performance is almost a must today. Even if the denim is traditionally a "rigid" a small % of elastane/Lycra helps the level of comfort achieved. Stretch is today non gender specific. Guys need it just as much as girls.

Extreme stretch = high function and super shape. 

Heavier performance stretch is for shape enforcement, while lighter stretch is used for barely there jeggings. There are no limits to % stretch, with use of growth limiting weft yarns. 

©TheDenimEye2016

Athleisure comfort stretch for all day comfort as well as higher stretch for a higher sport performance.