All in the Family: Hasan & Ahmed Javed

All in the Family: Hasan & Ahmed Javed

When you ask Hasan Javed and Ahmed Javed about their first impressions of the denim business as children, the brothers each recall their earliest visits to the garment factory. Perhaps most tellingly, they both remember being “fascinated” by everything they saw. 

We chatted with the pair of Artistic Fabric & Garment Industries bluebloods about how they started working together — and the moment they came to realize that denim was their true calling. 

Carved in Blue: What was your first impression of the denim business when you were younger?

Hasan: I remember walking through the garment factories with my father as a young boy, and lots of women working as seamstresses on the production floor, exchanging smiles. I was fascinated with the entire process. It looked like the perfect marriage between art and science. It was something special.

Ahmed: Fascinating. As a kid my first visit was to the garment factory. My second visit was to a spinning mill. It baffled me how something so white can turn into something so blue.

Carved in Blue: How did you start working together in denim?

Hasan: I joined the family business in 2010 on the yarn and denim fabric side. I needed someone from the next generation on the garment side. Someone that shared the same passion for denim and an ambition to grow the business, as well as a vision to incorporate sustainable practices and technological upgrades. 

I also wanted someone to assist on the marketing side, including a strategy for social media. It’s been fun traveling together to the trade shows and mill-weeks etc. The synergy has been great since Ahmed joined in 2017.

Ahmed: In 2017, I moved back from the U.K. after completing my studies and joined the business immediately. My first task was to dive into sales and marketing for the garment side of the business. Being a vertical supplier and having Hasan leading the charge on the fabric side, it created a natural synergy from day one.

Carved in Blue: Did you always want to go into the denim business?

Hasan: I made up my mind early on — perhaps when I was in high school and used to spend my summer breaks interning at the family business. I have absolutely no regrets since I joined. This business is a gift that keeps on giving.

Ahmed: There was a moment in college when I considered finance but, that was brief. I’ve always felt denim was my true calling. 

Carved in Blue: Do you want your children to follow in your footsteps?

Hasan: I want them to have the freedom to choose. I have a two-year-old daughter; my spouse would like for her to be a doctor, or a lawyer like herself, but she does seem quite fascinated with blue jeans at a young age.

Ahmed: Not necessarily. I want them to have the liberty of choosing their career without having the added pressure of fulfilling a duty towards their family business 

Carved in Blue: When did you realize you were a blueblood?

Hasan: When I fell in love with the look and smell of pure indigo.

Ahmed: There was a time when I would try and guess everyone’s brand of jeans in the room. Soon I realized that wasn’t exactly normal behavior. 

Carved in Blue: What is the best advice you’ve gotten from your brother?

Hasan: Keep your feet firmly on the ground at all times, and that there is no substitute for hard work.

Ahmed: Stay humble, always put the customer first and give back to the business that has given you so much. And always end the day with a positive thought. No matter how difficult things are, tomorrow is a fresh opportunity to make it better. 

Carved in Blue: What do you think’s ahead for the denim industry in the future?

Hasan: We have to shift the system and work towards circularity and industry 4.0 practices. Only those who rethink the way they do business, and invest back in a responsible and innovative way, will thrive in the future.  There’s too much greenwashing in the industry, and while we have all collectively improved the state of our industry in the last decade, there’s still a lot more work to be done. 

Ahmed: The term sustainability is quite vague and often misused but I’ll break it down to two main areas that I believe need focus — economic sustainability and process sustainability. The resources we make this denim with are scarce, and if we don’t constantly innovate to use them more efficiently we may not have them at all. 

At the same time, consumer demand patterns have significantly changed. They want to buy less, they want to buy better and they want it at all at a fair price. So to match these ever-changing needs and continue to innovate, a supplier has to continuously invest back into his business, and the only way to do that is to rethink their business model with economic sustainability in mind. 

Carved in Blue: What does Carved in Blue mean to you?

Hasan: Carved in Blue is a great platform to bring together people, stories and innovations from the entire denim industry.