“Christmas came early” was barely an exaggeration when denim arrived at the Yes Friends office this week. Here’s the team WhatsApp chat.
We wondered if Santa would appear to deliver the goods, maybe swapping his usual red suit for a denim blue.
But forget Santa’s workshop, Turkey is where the magic really happens
Last month, we were in Izmir, visiting our denim factories – a traditional cut and sew factory, and a second laundry factory filled with devices and contraptions, so fancy they could possibly serve a secondary purpose as time machines.
We were like Marty McFly walking through Back to the Future’s 2015: Mostly with no idea what was going on.
Thankfully we were shown around by a man who would explain it all: Uraz.
Uraz – the managing director of the cut and sew factory – met us at the airport a few hours beforehand, and we quickly learned he can find a killer spot for meze. He also took us past the local bridal-shop mile (like the curry mile of Manchester), where white dresses in window displays seemed to stretch on forever. If you’re getting married and suffer from any kind of choice-paralysis, it’s not the road for you.
Anyway…
Uraz and his team work closely with a laundry factory that has a partnership going with a Spanish company called Jeanologia, which is cracking down on the fact that 20% of water pollution is caused by the textile industry – and it was inventing technology to change that. This is what the time machines were about.
The making of denim has been pretty broken in the past – tonnes of water waste, rivers turned an unnatural blue.
They're beginning to change all that.
It’s also making working conditions healthier. For instance, we caught a glimpse of the low-impact laser machines your Yes Friends denim is faded with – which has none of the same hazards for garment workers as traditional sandblasting.
Uraz began taking steps towards sustainability and ethical fashion in 2009, and now him and the team are running full speed. When we said we wanted a living wage scheme set up for garment workers at his cut & sew factory, we discovered they’d already piloted one, and they were ready to go with our tipping scheme too.
If you haven’t got a pair yet, indulge us for a second...
This denim has the rugged texture of an organic cotton field. And it's got enough stretch to feel comfortable, without compromising its authentic, durable heft.
It’s glammed up with branded rivets and buttons, finished with lasers, and has a wonderfully low Environmental Impact Score.
It also passed the most uncompromising denim inspection we’ve ever seen (see the P.S. below).
Also, to be really frank, if this team in Turkey made the same sustainable denim for another brand, you’d likely be paying three times as much. Brands like their markups in this industry.
But because we’re committed to changing the fashion industry over our bank account, and because we deliver direct to you with no middle-men markups, we’re able to charge less and commit to good wages for garment workers.
We’ve said it before – it’s a Ferrari for the price of a Fiesta.
Even if this Ferrari, like a denim-clad Santa, now comes in indigo blue.
TAKE IT FOR A SPIN
P.S. It takes a village to raise a denim child
This factory isn’t just where the future is happening, it’s where the best of the old is happening too.
There’s a village nearby, long renowned for their exacting standards in denim production. They’re so respected that the factory would have to think twice before ever moving away from this village.
They’re almost a secret weapon in denim quality assurance.
And these experts were merciless.
After the denim had been examined not once but twice, these experts would complete a third and final check. And even if there was even a minor stitching discrepancy, they’d set it aside to be repaired.
We’re grateful for this merciless gatekeeping of quality – it gave us some of the most beautiful denim jeans we’ve ever held.
GET THEM IN YOUR HANDS
