Bluezone Trends: Think Beyond the Basic Jean

Angela Velasquez
·3 min read

The qualities that made a trend or product a commercial success 10 or 20 years ago no longer apply in 2024, according to Tilmann Wröbel, founder of Monsieur-T, a denim and design consultancy.

At Bluezone last week, Wröbel presented four themes for the upcoming season that denim designers should have on their radar. However, the themes offer designers generous amounts of wiggle room to carve out their own identity—a factor that should weigh heavily on smaller or new brands.

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“The term commercial has totally changed. It’s not because a garment is easy to understand or easy to sell that makes it commercial,” Wröbel said. “For some existing brands, being themselves and selling their own identity is very commercial. It is commercial for Levi’s to sell something for everyone. It is commercial for Tommy Jeans to sell the American dream. We know a lot about what is already existing and what is already happening every day in the market. The main question today is how to be different; how not to do what others do. How to be yourself; how to be unique.”

Wröbel urged designers to think differently about the term because the idea of a commercial trend being close to what is already selling is not working in denim retail anymore.

“The idea of making a big denim brand that can dress the world with one basic 5-pocket design is far behind us. Today we must think differently. Its smaller themes, smaller brands, smaller opportunities, and stronger identities,” he said.

Here’s a closer look at Wröbel’s four themes to know for Fall/Winter 2024 onward.

Random Geometrics

Virtual reality is informing new patterns and shapes. In denim, this digital influence is being executed as tailoring with deconstructed pockets and fabrics with contrasting washes—some playing with darkness and light.

The theme is especially important for garments outside the basic jeans. “Something really important to understand is that our industry is not supposed to do only jeans and bottoms anymore,” he said. Don’t start with a jean. Take the opposite approach, he added, by designing all kinds of garments in denim and maybe, in addition, a pair of jeans.

Grunge Dystopia

Consumers are inundated with 24-hour news on war, politics, strikes, inflation and global warming and they’re dressing for it. “There is some kind of resilient feeling, a grungy and dystopian vision of this world coming up. And this dystopian feeling influences outfits,” Wröbel said.

Like musketeers, who wore their battered and tattered garments to prove how strong they were, Wröbel said consumers are gravitating toward fabrics that “represent how fiercely we’re fighting in all these critical situations nowadays.”

Dirty washes of gold, brown and gray darken denim. Hairy textures feel untamed, and oversized silhouettes feel protective.

Gorpcore Denim

Functional fashion is a mainstay in markets like Germany, but Wröbel said demand for utility is spreading. “It is taking over denim,” he said. “There are a lot of functional denim fabrics. Functionality is also coming through extremely clean and outdoor-inspired looks.”

Wröbel urged brands to mix outdoor, utility and Western elements, and to do it with technical fabrics that provide the wearer with warmth and protection against wind and rain.

Heat Wave

“We have experienced super-hot summers, and we know that the upcoming summers will be even hotter, and it is becoming complicated to wear a pair of jeans in summer,” Wröbel said.

Mills are preparing for the hot temperatures, however. Fabrics with new structures and weaving systems that enhance airflow and light weights ranging from 7-8.5 oz. are key here. Convertible and ventilated designs are also important because, as Wröbel put it: “We will not run around in shorts just because it’s super warm.”