Discover the Ways Design Influences How Your Jeans Look, How They Feel, and How They Wear and Fade

You probably know there’s such a thing as ‘designer jeans.’ But have you ever thought about how misleading that term could be; indicating that only designer jeans are designed?

Of course, that’s not true.

All jeans are designed. Whether your jeans are made from kittens eyelashes and embellished with rhinestones, or they’re a vintage non-name brand you found at your local thrift store; they’ve been designed by a designer.

The design influences all aspects of the garment; how it looks, how it feels on the body, how it wears and fades. The design also differentiates makers. And when it comes to designing jeans, nothing can be left to chance.

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works,” Steve Jobs famously said.

That’s just as true in our world of slubs and stitches as it is in Apple’s world of bits and bytes. But what does it take to design a pair of jeans? That’s the question this first episode of the ‘how jeans are made’ series answers.

There are three parts in the series about how jeans are made:

Design and development (this post)
Cut and sew
Garment finishing

What’s In A Job Title?

As the ‘how denim is made’ series proves, denim is a complex fabric. It lives and changes with you. There are almost endless ways the cotton, spinning, dyeing, weaving and finishing processes can be combined to create unique fabrics. That means it’s a challenging one to work with for designers.

The responsibilities of a fashion designer are most often sourcing and design. Once those tasks are completed, the reins are handed over to a developer who—under the supervision of the designer—turns the design into actual garments.