Denim Brands Offer Utility, Coordinates and Ready-to-Wear at Project Las Vegas
Denim brands gave buyers a taste of what’s to come for Spring/Summer 2024 last week at Project Las Vegas. Trendy coordinates, workwear themes and looser silhouettes filled collections at the contemporary men’s and women’s market. Many brands also grew their lines to include non-denim items while others expanded their sustainable footprint with more environmentally friendly fabrics, dyes and washes.
Spring/Summer 2024 fashion
The apocolytic-meets-Y2K aesthetic being revived by brands like Diesel, Blumarine and Foo and Foo was also evident in collections at Project.
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Palas balanced bestselling straight, bootcut and wide leg fits with aggressively washed denim tops and bottoms. The edgy collection featured acid washes, dirty tints, bleach effects and overdyes on cargo jeans, wide-leg jeans and halter vests. The brand tapped into rave culture with jeans with long straps.
Looking beyond its retro roots, Australian brand Rolla’s explored coordinates and comfy fits. A wide-leg pleated jean offered a roomy trouser look, while denim skorts were an easy alternative to miniskirts. A buttercream base grounded Rolla’s floral-print denim, available as a vest, button-front skirt, wide-leg sailor jeans and overalls. Other highlights in the collection included white linen shorts and matching sleeveless button-down shirts.
Tints were part of Abrand’s seasonal collection, as well as 7.5-inch low-rise jeans and a pieced denim vest and matching miniskirt. The brand also showed a boiler suit with side cinches, cropped overshirts, a maxi skirt with an undone hem and pleated miniskirts.
Flat silver studs added a ’90s grunge look to 7 For All Mankind’s wide-leg jeans and oversized denim jackets. The brand also showed the must-have women’s items of the season: maxi skirts and cargo jeans.
For men, 7 For All Mankind presented a “Made in Italy” capsule collection of jackets, jeans and tees based on the four elements. Each element—earth, water, air and fire—has a unique wash and finishing. For example, air had a tinted blue wash while the brand chose red specks for fire.
Maxi skirts anchored Hudson’s collection. The brand showed options with front slits and welted cargo pockets. The pocketing was carried into Hudson’s cargo jeans, available in indigo and white with wheat stitching. Sleeveless jumpsuits, pleated trousers with a straight leg and wide-leg jeans with a twisted zipper hem were other highlights.
Looser fits added newness to Liverpool Los Angeles’ collection. The brand introduced a “non-skinny” skinny jean and the Norma jean, a retro spin on a relaxed fit. Wholesale accounts are also showing interest in cropped wide-leg jeans and long flare jeans. Fashion pieces are the main stars in Liverpool’s collection, however. The brand showed pink floral-printed denim jackets and coordinating jeans, a jean jacket with a denim rosette pin and a cropped collarless denim jacket with braided trim.
The denim pieces tie back to Liverpool’s wide assortment of wide-leg pants and shackets made with lofty fabrics, soft touch twill jackets and printed blazers and blouses. Liverpool is also tapping into the minimalist workwear trend with soft and fluid-feeling cargo pants that coordinate with relaxed blazers and a utility Trucker jacket with an elastic waistband on the back.
New women’s fits for Mavi include the Florida, a wide-leg jean based on a dad style, and a new Bermuda short with a cutoff hem. Picked laser effects added textured to the brand’s coordinates. Mavi also showed a cropped knit denim jacket and jeans.
In addition to its signature embroideries, Driftwood showed coordinating jeans, jackets and midi skirts decorated with crystals. The women’s brand keyed into the utility trend with zipper- and cargo-pocket-clad jeans—a look echoed in many Magic collections.
New to the show, French Dressing brought basics and novelty denim. The 40-year-old Canadian brand showed denim tunic tops, bamboo-blend jeans, pull-on wide-leg jeans and a range of white jeans with hem details like slits and eyelet.
Sustainability first
Mavi continues to build out its sustainable All Blue product line with a collection that dives deep into recycled fibers and sustainable packaging, including walnut shell back labels, biodegradable nutshell buttons, sugar cane hangtags and recycled woven labels.
The company, which became the first and only apparel brand from Turkey to be included in the 2022 Climate Change A List, is also one of the first to bring recycled linen denim to market. Offered in items like women’s ecru wide-leg jeans and a button-up vest, the soft, durable fabric is comprised of 62 percent cotton, 26 percent Tencel, 11 percent recycled linen and 1 percent elastane. Derived from the flax plant, linen uses fewer resources like water, energy and pesticides to grow and is 100 percent biodegradable, Mavi said. Linen is also good for allergy-prone skin.
Well Blue, Mavi’s first bamboo-blended fabric, has built-in performance as well. The 76 percent cotton and 24 percent bamboo fabric boast the lightweight structure of classic cotton denim with enhanced moisture wicking and fast-drying qualities.
Sustainable colors are a springboard for innovation. In addition to the natural dyes being used in men’s and women’s denim and sportswear like soft modal tees, Mavi is using colored cotton grown by Turkish mill Orta to achieve tan-colored denim. Using less water and chemicals, the no-dye cotton naturally grows in various hues, using regenerative farming techniques.
The brand is also adding Tencel with Refibra technology to men’s after launching it in women’s last season. The technology gives a second life to pre- and post-consumer cotton textiles which would otherwise be landfilled or incinerated. These scraps are mashed into cotton pulp and then mixed with wood pulp, a renewable raw material sourced from sustainably managed forests. The closed-loop production process uses 95 percent less water than conventional cotton.
Ace Rivington showed men’s jeans made with Candiani Denim’s Coreva technology. The fabric is comprised of 92 percent cotton and 8 percent Coreva, 100 percent biodegradable and compostable natural rubber yarn that replaces synthetic petroleum-based stretch performance yarns. The brand also brought back jeans made with selvedge fabrics from the Italian mill and new jean jackets.
Etica’s collection was rich with sustainable ingredients like regenerative cotton knits and denim made with Tencel with Refibra technology. The brand used bleach-free, low-impact washes throughout the line, as well as natural dyes to achieve saturated shades of green.
The eco components come together in Etica’s collection that keys into ongoing trends for minimalist workwear and loose fits. Two-tone patchwork jeans, a twisted side-seam maxi skirt, zipper cargo pants and relaxed shorts and wide-leg jeans in a bright indigo wash were highlights.
Beyond denim
Denim brands are finding new opportunities in ready-to-wear.
Double gauze shirting is a bright spot in Ace Rivington’s collection. A rep for the California men’s brand said wholesale accounts are showing interest in the versatile casual button-down shirts that tie back to the brand’s core jeans.
Mavi expanded its range of ready-to-wear with men’s poplin shirts, linen pants and shirts, cargo pants and a more premium version of its core twill bottoms. For women, the brand introduced parachute pants with elastic cord waistbands and hems and widen its assortment of sportswear with items like a cropped rugby shirt. The brand’s modal sweatshirts, hoodies and sweatpants for men and women have a distinct soft and spongey touch. A line of naturally dyed tees, tanks and polo shirts carry the brand’s commitment to sustainability outside the denim category.
Hudson’s ready-to-wear assortment for women spanned cap-sleeve shirts in tan, white and black, keyhole knit tanks and vegan leather camp shirts.
Kut From the Kloth complemented its range of watermelon-hued denim with poplin button-down shirts. The oversized shirts came in pink and neon green stripes. 7 For All Mankind also added a range of coordinating poplin pants and shirts.
Denim was also seen in collections from accessories brands. Hobo, for example, showcased a dark-wash denim tote and matching wristlet.
Liverpool Los Angeles soft-launched Spring/Summer 2024 footwear at the show. The assortment includes square-toe slides, block heel sandals and ballet flats in tan and soft gold leather and pop colors like red and blue. The collection also features denim uppers and toe ornaments that nod to Liverpool’s flag logo.
