When it comes to sustainability, denim is often a challenge, given the amount of water and resources it takes to produce just one pair of blue jeans. But GANNI and Levi’s have found a way to start making steps in the right direction.
Available to purchase from Wednesday, February 24, GANNI and Levi’s have teamed up for their second denim collaboration. Combining the brands’ classic styles and aesthetics with innovation, the 14-piece ready-to-wear collection was made using cottonised hemp, which allows for less water and pesticides to be used, to push towards a more sustainable future. “One of the great things about working with the Levi’s team has been our shared ambition to create a responsible product,” Ditte Reffstrup, creative director of GANNI, tells Teen Vogue. “The hemp used to make the fabric is all rain feed with a proven lower footprint than conventional denim, traditionally made from cotton. The cottonised hemp is so soft and luxurious in feeling, you honestly can’t tell it’s not conventional denim.”
“So much has happened on the agenda of sustainability in fashion in recent years,” she said. “Consumers have woken up to the effects of the fashion industry and are demanding much more of brands, which is only a good thing. We all need to find solutions through innovation because fashion isn’t going away.”
Opportunity
“This collaboration was an opportunity to [use] next level sustainable materials with cottonised hemp,” Karyn Hillman, chief product officer at Levi’s said in a press release. “It’s been amazing working with the GANNI team, we both share a passion for authenticity, originality, and sustainability. Ultimately, we set out to inspire authentic self-expression - creating unique and easy pieces that people fall in love with, and wear again and again and again.”
Campaign
Tying in with the release, the brands also unveiled a campaign to boot. The campaign imagery for the collection was captured by London-based talent Rosie Marks, who was specifically chosen by the GANNI team to capture their vision for this collaboration. “We first worked with Rosie Marks for our GANNI 202020 exhibition back in August last year and fell in love with her way of documenting normal, everyday people,” Reffstrup says.
“Making the ordinary extraordinary with her signature cardboard cutouts. For this campaign, we wanted to create something that felt global, community-led, and fun,” she adds. “Because of the pandemic teams were not able to travel, we came up with this concept of shooting a cast in London and turning them into cardboard figures, sending these on a trip to Copenhagen and San Francisco, the hometowns of both brands, and photographing the cardboard figures around the cities in iconic locations.”
The humor and light heartedness of the imagery bring an added layer of life to the denim collection and it’s an innovative way to capture the denim while still maintaining Covid-19 guidelines.