Lee and H&M come up with ‘Next Gen’ sustainable denim

The collaboration between the American denim maker and the Swedish retailer is said to be a holistic and thrilling one. H&M is coming up with its first 100 percent recycled cotton jeans, with cotton free denim made with Tencel, water-saving dyes and lower impact denim washes, the next month. Leather patches will be replaced by cork derived material and Jacron paper.

The line will include oversized silhouettes that will enhance ‘Lee’s esteemed heritage’. In progress with the project, for the first time, H&M will show the life cycle assessment of all stages of its denim items on its website. Lee and H&M are the members of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s ‘Jean Redesign’ project which is working towards attaining more circular denim.

Jon Loman, the H&M designer, appreciates its collaboration with Lee for creating sustainable and circular denim garments. They challenged and motivated each other positively in the whole process and came up with Lee’s iconic designs with a twist of H&M flavor for the customers around the world. They used recycled-cotton jerseys as one of the materials for their collection. Chris Waldeck, executive vice president and global brand president at Lee, also promotes the collaboration and their efforts for making better denim, they are in the industry for more than 130 years and now have taken an initiative to lead towards sustainable denim with H&M. The collection will go live on February 4