Denim Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
The first pair of jeans Juan Pares owned was Levi’s Red Tab five-pockets and he loved them beyond measure. It was 1975 and, at that time, owning a pair of Levi’s in Spain, where the Textile Santanderina chairman and CEO grew up, was amazing.
“I felt really good with this pair of jeans, that’s all I remember,” Pares said. “And I tried to use it every day and my mother said, ‘No, not every day, you have to wash it!”
Fast forward more than 40 years and Pares is leading one of Spain’s most cutting-edge textile companies that’s been in business since 1923, spinning, finishing and turning out top quality textiles and fabrics—denim one among them.
At its Cantabria, Spain facility, Santanderina makes products ranging from cotton classics to the latest innovations using technical fibers like TENCEL®.
“Santanderina was the first company in the world to use this fiber,” Pares said. “At this point in time, Courtaulds launched TENCEL® and nobody knew how to use it. We started to make yarn and it was really difficult, and when we washed the fabric it had all these hairs on it—it was a really different thing. But we discovered that there was a possibility to create something new on the market.”
The company continued to perfect its use of TENCEL® over the years, finding it adaptable for blends with other fibers and appreciating the resulting quality of the product. Santanderina grew up with TENCEL®, so to speak, investing in ways to perfect the use of the fiber, finding the right processes for mercerizing and dyeing, and thinking of ways to improve its development.
“For us, TENCEL® is our key product in this moment, and when we think of the future, we think of TENCEL®. Everything goes together,” he said.
But when they think of the past, Pares said, the industry has changed a lot since he started at the ripe age of 18.
“Basically, in the industrial period of time there was a different approach to the market,” Pares explained. “In the early 80s, we were focused more on cost and production and the customer was very far away from the production process. Today, the customer is in the middle of the production process.”
Consumers are driving fashion nowadays, more so than ever before, and what many of them want above most else is service and innovation.
“The consumer knows exactly what they want and they analyze every garment and they know what a good value is,” Pares added. But that said, “They want to be surprised by the product that you offer them. We are always thinking about the consumer and always trying to be different and to be in the market constantly.”
Beyond being the sphere of influence, consumers increasingly want sustainable products, and sustainability is part of the ethos at Santanderina.
“It is not possible to create a sustainable product if you are not believing in a sustainable company,” Pares said simply.
Santanderina prides itself on creating sustainable, ethical and environmentally-friendly fashion that’s mindful of the planet and the people that live on it. From its eco dyestuffs to reducing water and energy, and using environmentally responsible TENCEL® and TENCEL® blends with recycled cotton, care is a central concern for the company.
“100 percent of the products we are putting on the market are sustainable,” Pares said. “Sustainability is every day more important for the end consumer. For me, it’s so simple. All the companies must be focused on protecting our planet and we can’t wait for other people to do it.”
The textile industry is evolving just as fashion regularly does, but one thing is clear to Pares: “Denim is at the top right now and that is the most important thing.”
So what can we expect to see from denim for Autumn/Winter ’18?
Pares said although sales of skinny jeans might be slowing, there’s an evolution of the fit. Skinny jeans coexist with boyfriend fits and jogger jeans but he doesn’t yet see either of those superseding the skinny.
“In the last two years, we’ve seen a lot of these kind of pants—the joggers, boyfriends, track suit pants—the producers expect great reaction in the market, but in the end it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t make a substitution for the skinny. It’s evident that the skinny moves in different directions. We try to find solutions but in the end, there is nothing so explicit like the skinny was 10 years ago.”
More and more, fashion is airing on the side of comfort with an infusion of performance properties. Specialty fibers make it possible to have denim with good strength, nano technology can make a pair of jeans improve the smoothness of the skin, and these are the types of products, according to Pares, that we’ll start seeing more of in the mass market.
Today, Pares’ collection of jeans has evolved from his once single signature pair of Levi’s.
“Today, I don’t have any precise model of jeans, it’s a commodity for me,” he said. “It’s like music. You can use a different pair of jeans in every moment and I have jeans for every occasion. If you want to dress with a jacket, you use one pair of jeans. If you want to go to the forest, you use another and if you want to go to the disco, you use another.”
To Pares, the introduction of Carved in Blue as a platform to share denim’s offerings with the world, means everything.
“For denim people like us, Carved in Blue is one of the milestones of the company. We believe in it and we believe in it for the future too.”