Joe & Co sell British-made denim clothing online and from their stall in Altrincham Market. I was brought up in Altrincham and from a very young age used to wander round the market where everything from clothes, hardware and secondhand books to food, antiques and bric a brac were sold in the Victorian market building - and still are.
Joe & Co sell a variety of clothes, jeans, trousers, shirts - all made in the UK - so I was fascinated to hear that they've designed some jeans made from English-made denim. We think of denim as a largely US and latterly Japanese product, but I've long had this theory that it could have originated in the UK and probably Lancashire, where the technology for mass production of cotton cloth was first developed in the 18th and early 19th centuries. My thoughts about this are really for a future feature as I don't want to clutter this report; suffice it to say that at least one US fashion academic has written about this tantalising possibility.
Anyway, this made the prospect of trying some totally British-made jeans very welcome and I was sent a pair of their Joe & Co x Hewitt Heritage jeans. They are made from 14.5 oz white line raw selvedge denim woven on 1950s Northrop shuttle looms in Lancashire - you can't really get any closer to the heart of the cotton-weaving industrial revolution than that. These old looms create an uneven finish in the cloth that is much sought after by denimheads. This finish is caused by small breaks in the weft resulting from 'loom chatter', a characteristic of these old machines. Modern machines create an even weave that simply can't equal the irregular wear and fade, so cherished by denim lovers, that results in denim woven on the old looms.
My jeans were cut and stitched in NW England and the level of detail if remarkable, with stout leather washers beneath the fly buttons and stitching that has to be seen to be believed. The fit is true to size and the denim is robust without being too stiff. I love my pair and they await their first wash as I mature them for that attractive faded patina that comes from the best denim.
Excellent value at £175. Joe & Co jeans also come in Japanese denim. See Joe & Co for more information and to buy online.
