Are natural indigo selvedge jeans worth to buy?

One of the most talked about topics in jean selvage lovers’ is dyeing,as it relates to fading effects. In recent years, more and more people have begun to respect the traditional dyeing process. Many jeans brands are under the banner of natural indigo. What is unique about jeans dyed with natural indigo, and what is the difference between it and synthetic indigo? Is hand dyeing more beautiful? Is it worth paying the big bucks for a pair of hand-dyed blue jeans?

This article will decipher for you through the introduction of indigo and the principle of dyeing.

Natural indigo selvedge jeans fabric Manufacturing from WingFly natural selection selvedge jeans

Indigo dye is one of the oldest dyes today

Indigo is a very classic and widely used dyestuff in human history. In 2016, the American journal “Science Advances” published a 6,000-year-old piece of indigo-dyed waste cloth found in Peru. Prior to this, the earliest known indigo-dyed textiles appeared in the pyramids built by the Fifth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, also dating back 4,500 years.

 

What is indigo in natural indigo selvedge jeans 

The word indigo comes from the Greek word “indikón”, but the color of indigo originates from India, and “indigo” in Latin means “a substance from India”.

In ancient times, indigo was extracted from plants, so it was also called natural indigo or plant indigo(though there is natual indigo selvedge). The dye is extracted by infiltration and fermentation, and the indigo mud is precipitated, which is then dried into a mass and then ground into powder. This requires a lot of expertise, time and effort.

 

There are many plants that can make natural indigo, the most famous ones are indigofera tinctoria (wood blue) from India, called “true” indigo; there are also Indigofera suffruticosa (wood blue) from the United States, Indigofera bracteolate (wood blue) from West Africa. blue), Isatis tinctorial (wasati) in Europe and the Middle East, Marsdenia tinctorial (wood blue) in Southeast Asia, Japan’s Persicaria tinctorial (polygonum blue) and so on.

 

indigofera tinctoria (wood blue) of India

And Indigofera suffruticosa (wood blue) from America

Indigofera bracteolate (wood blue) of West Africa

Isatis tinctorial in Europe and the Middle East

Marsdenia tinctorial (wood blue) in Southeast Asia

Japanese Persicaria tinctorial (Polygonum blue)

synthetic indigo

It was not until 1878 that German chemist Adolf von Baeyer invented synthetic indigo. By 1914, 95% of natural indigo products had disappeared; today, almost all blue denim is dyed with synthetic indigo.

 

Indigo dyeing

 

Regardless of whether the indigo dye is extracted from the indigo plant or extracted from petroleum, it will eventually precipitate into indigo mud and then grind into powder.

 

When dyeing, indigo powder is dissolved in water, and then the yarn or fabric is placed in the dye vat. But indigo is a vat dye, which is insoluble in water, so it needs to be reduced with a reducing agent (usually sodium hydrosulfite, commonly known as hydrosulfite). Indigo in the reduced state can be dissolved in water, soak the yarn in the indigo solution, and the indigo will be adsorbed on the yarn fibers.

 

When the yarn fibers leave the dyeing vat, the indigo adsorbed on the fibers will react with the air and undergo oxidation reaction to form a water-insoluble oxidation state, and the indigo will be firmly attached to the surface of the fibers.

 

So why does indigo fade?

The unique fading properties of indigo jeans are related to the ring dyeing of the yarn fibers, which gives the denim a high-contrast fading effect. Because the indigo molecules are simply too large for cotton fibers, which means the dye can only attach to the surface of the fiber, not the core.

Indigo denim fabric fading principle:

Due to the way denim is dyed, indigo dye cannot fully dye the core of the yarn. With washing and rubbing, the indigo dye remaining on the surface of the yarn is rubbed away, revealing the original white core.

 

Traditional hand-dyeing techniques, by dyeing with natural indigo, can achieve high dye penetration (but still cannot fully dye the core of the yarn). The dye penetrates deeper (the white core gets smaller), which means that hand-dyed fabrics will fade more slowly and have less contrast than industrial-dyed fabrics (because they need to be worn longer, washed more often, and rubbed harder to exposing the white core), then hand-dyed jeans may not be suitable for most cattle breeders. (But it is also a good choice for those who want to keep the color of the original cow as unchanged as possible.)

 

And the traditional hand-dyed yarn needs to be soaked many times to achieve the desired color. That is to say, it is difficult to color, and for the same number of dyeing, the color of hand-dyed is lighter than that of industrial dyeing. This is also the reason why some hand-dyed Japanese cattle brands have as many as 20 dyeing processes. This backwardness or defect in the process has become a brand selling point in the eyes of laymen.

 

(Note: “Hand-dyed is lighter than industrial-dyed color”, but it does not mean that light-colored jeans are necessarily hand-dyed!)

 

Due to the time-consuming and high labor cost of manual dyeing, it is not suitable for large-scale commercial production.

Most are dyed using modern industrial dyeing, and even if there is hand dyeing, it is only individual styles of natural indigo selvedge jeans.Such as natural indigo japanese denim brands Denime, Samurai Jeans, WareHouse, Momotaro, and other jeans brands natural selvedge jeans that claim to use natural indigo such as Nudie Jeans, naked famous natural indigo, Left Field, Iron Heart, Big John, etc. Naked and famous natural indigo selvedge pants are the most hot.

 

In modern industrial indigo dyeing, even if it is dyed many times, the indigo dye only stays on the surface of the yarn and cannot penetrate into the core, whether natural or synthetic indigo is used. With washing and wear, the blue fades away, revealing an undyed white core.

 

Note: Since natural indigo is generally used for hand dyeing, many people mistakenly think that using natural indigo will not fade or fade slowly. In fact, the speed of fading of jeans and the strength of color fading contrast have nothing to do with natural indigo or not. It depends on the dyeing technology. In addition, spinning and weaving also have a certain influence.

 

Difference Between Natural Indigo and Synthetic Indigo

 

▲ Price

 

Without a doubt, the most obvious difference between the two is the price, synthetic indigo is much cheaper than natural indigo.

 

The price of synthetic indigo usually ranges from 10 to 20 yuan per 1000g, while the price of natural indigo ranges from 230 to 240 yuan per 1000g. Different quality and grade, the price will be different.

 

If the indigo dye required for a pair of jeans is 50g, the cost of synthetic indigo is 1 yuan, and the cost of natural indigo is 12 yuan. Under the condition that other production costs such as raw materials, technology, labor, etc. remain unchanged, assuming these costs are 30 yuan, the cost of a pair of jeans is as follows:

 

Total cost of synthetic indigo jeans:

 

Other cost 30 + cost of synthetic indigo 20*5%=31 yuan

 

Total Natural Indigo Jeans Cost:

 

Other cost 30 + natural indigo cost 240*5%=42 yuan

 

Jeans using natural indigo cost almost twice as much as those using synthetic indigo.

 

▲ Color tone

 

It can be well understood why the price of natural indigo is higher from the extraction and production methods of dyes. However, although the unit price of natural indigo is many times higher than that of synthetic indigo, it can be seen from the above calculation that the price of indigo dye does not restrict the cost of jeans. major factor.

 

So why are natural indigo selvedge jeans so expensive?

 

This is due to the instability of natural indigo.

 

There are many plants that can extract natural indigo, and different indigo plants have certain color differences; even if it is the same indigo plant, there may be differences in hue between each plant, and it will be affected by climate and other factors.

 

In addition, natural indigo derived from plants will contain certain impurities, and even the best manufacturer or the best equipment cannot guarantee the uniform tone of denim produced. If there is a problem with the fabric produced, manufacturers may have to re-manufacture or take other remedial measures, thereby increasing costs and affecting shipments, so in large-scale commercial production, natural indigo is rarely used.

 

Visually, natural indigo selvedge denim will have more color variations with a unique green shade. Depending on the degree of fermentation and the number of dyeings, different shades of color can be dyed.

 

In contrast, denim dyed with synthetic indigo is more uniform in color and produces a red shade when not mixed with sulfur. Levi’s made jeans in the 1950s and 1960s with red shades.

 

In terms of color, natural indigo is richer, but it is difficult to meet mass production.

Answer about:worth or not to buy natural indigo selvedge jeans:

In medieval Europe, indigo used to be the color of the royal family. It was rare and noble, making the proletariat yearn for it. Today, clothes made of indigo are readily available, especially jeans, and at least one pair is available.

 

While other colors of clothing become worn and dull after washing and wear, indigo jeans become fresh and bright after fading. Whether made of natural indigo or synthetic indigo, jeans have their own uniqueness. But whether you need to spend a high price to buy hand-dyed natural indigo selvedge jeans, I believe you have the answer after reading this article.