what are the finest denim mills?

[jdavis]

I've heard lots about cone mills, kurabo, and others.. but what are some more? what do they make and for who? and how do they comapare? maybe even how much do they produce? i'd love to know.. serge and ring ring i've read lots of your stuff - what do you guys think? what does everyone think? thanks!

[ringring]

Mmmmm...it's a big topic. Lots of good mills in many countries. Kaihara in Japan is a famous one, Legler, Ital, , Tessitura di Robecchetto Candiani etc in Italy, Tavex in Spain, Orta Anadulu in Turkey, loads more. All are excellent, depends on your perspective (prices, minimums, lead times, exclusives, stretch denims, physical location etc etc). You'll probably be able to google up plenty of info on these mills, as many have their own websites, either that or go to a trade fair.

[jdavis]

i was actually hoping for some kind of list of mills, and what brand source from those mills... and unfortunately not all of them have that in their websites. i looked up Kaihara, and they quoted Levi's, Edwin and Lee as some of their largest clients. 177-392 million USD in annual sales too!

http://www.expo21xx.com/textile21xx/jeans-denim.htm#770

this is a pretty interesting website on lots of denim mills, but i was hoping that instead of sifting through all of it that we could somehow collab on a list of mills and who uses their denim

[Yakboy Equals Nurturer]

Quote: list of mills and who uses their denim

That's a great idea...I'd be particularly interested in seeing who uses selvage / premium denim produced by the same mills (and how much the price fluctuates between brands). Wonder if it would be possible to break down by manufacturing location too...

A quick search of Superfuture provided several matches (three guesses as to which two posters were the original source of the info):

Kaihara: Uniqlo, Oki-Ni Levis

Kurabo: GAP, Paper Denim + Cloth, Earnest Sewn, (possibly) Rogan, (possibly) Evisu

Google / corporate sites provided a few more definites...

Kaihara: Edwin, Lee, Bobson

Kurabo: Firetrap

Cone Mills: LVC Levis

...and a few possibles / rumors:

Kaihara: 21oz selvage for Denime and Studio D'Artisan?, Nudie? (some Swedish site was touting Reg Ralf's as "Japansk Kaihara-denim")

Interesting (or sad) to note that the only results from certain search combinations on Google are pages from Superfuture. Not as sad as the fact that I just spent an hour browsing the corporate websites of obscure Japanese textile manufacturers though.

Edited by Yakboy Equals Nurturer on Apr 21, 2005 at 03:01 PM

[hifashion]

what kind of quantities are you looking for small orders or large ones?

Are there actually any factories that would take an order under 200 pr of jeans?

[Blanc0]

Edited by Blanc0 on May 17, 2005 at 07:51 AM

[rhythmandsound]

FTC in the house? right on

[jdavis]

we can add One True Saxon to Kurabo, and Kasil to Ital (i think).... both have a selvage... although i won't be seeing a kasil until next week

also, I'd be interested to know what Italian mill earnest sewn uses, as the maz dark and milk blue washes of theirs are quoted as using Italiandenim, while the XX dry selvage used in the filson is Japanese

sooo... any more mills anyone knows about? thanks guys!