House of Denim and US Denim: Women Weave the Future
House of Denim Amsterdam, its Talent Incubator programme and Pakistan’s US Denim Mills have joined forces to create a denim capsule collection premiering at Kingpins Amsterdam (October 15 and 16) and Denim Days: ROOTS | Women Weave the Future.
Maryam Amin, creative head of research and development at US Denim Mills, travelled from Lahore to mentor Eva Immerzeel and Nikki Kolk and a team from the Incubator Programme.
Sharing stories (roots) and testing ideas, the resulting capsule collection is a reflection of female authorship in denim, they said.
The ROOTS project was initiated by denim consultant Piero Turk and US Denim Mills, and this marks the third chapter in an ongoing series.
Mariette Hoitink, co-founder of House of Denim and a previous guest commenter for Inside Denim, directed this edition, placing women at the heart of the project.
She said: “ROOTS shows what happens when women from different cultures, skills and perspectives come together: the result is directional denim. Professionals like Maryam are used to working for clients within briefings. This project provided a space for boundless creativity and experimental design with a team of female creators."
Maryam Amin added: “ROOTS gave me the chance to see how our skills and perspectives complement each other, and how denim can connect us and unfold creativity in meaningful ways.”
The fabric platform is based on regenerative cotton, blended with Tencel, linen and hemp and dyed with natural indigo. Selvedge denims are woven in Pakistan on Picanol selvedge shuttle looms, built in the 1960s and imported from Mexico in 2011.
The capsule was developed and sampled at Denim City in Amsterdam, where the team experimented with Jeanologia’s lasers, treatments by Officina+39 and embroidery techniques.
Piero Turk added: “What is textile? It’s blending fibres, weaving together different yarns, mixing tradition with innovation. Our project is also a tribute to textile. Blending and weaving together different backgrounds, different cultures and approaches, different attitudes and feelings, to express and create a new identity.”
