• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Denim produced on the Draper X3 loom

Bombing IP

Well-Known Member
A MACHINE’S FINGERPRINTS

The vibrations that give selvage denim its signature look turn out to have several layers. Those caused by the flexing floorboards compound another set emanating from within the loom itself. These come from the shuttle shooting back and forth across the loom at a rate of three times per second. The force generated to fire those high-speed zig-zags literally gives the X3 the shudders, what denim makers call “loom chatter.”


“As Japanese brands progressed, they experimented with techniques that pushed the limits of what denim is,” says Kiya Babzani, founder of Self Edge, the country’s leading high-end selvage retailer.

“That’s the thing those looms do best,” says Lytvinenko. “A lot of it comes from the loom being so big and heavy and clunky and old. It shakes the fabric, and you get these teeny-tiny things that, in other fabrics, look like flaws. But in denim, it looks like total beauty.” In other words, if the modern loom is designed to work so flawlessly as to render itself invisible, the shuttle loom is a machine with fingerprints, mood swings, a soul. Throw in yarn with irregular thickness—called “slub” in the trade—and you get even more variation, more depth, more character.



Source / https://craftsmanship.net/the-secret-to-vintage-jeans/
 
Top