The Godfather of Denim Wants to Take Things Further
If nothing else, Adriano Goldschmied would like to be remembered as a good teacher—and a good fighter.
The godfather of denim was one of a dozen industry titans who sat down in the indigo chair for Carved in Blue’s Modern Definition of Denim video series to talk family, the future and sustainability.
And when it comes to sustainability, Goldschmied doesn’t mince words, saying it’s just one phase of all the problems the denim industry needs to take responsibility for.
“Honestly, I get really pissed off when I see, for instance, in Bangladesh, they buy machines that are a million dollars. They have sustainable processes, and people are dying in buildings that are collapsing or in not safe working processes,” he said.
While Goldschmied is proud to be known as a teacher who has helped students and others make their way in the industry, he would also like for his legacy to include innovation. Innovation, he said, is the engine of the denim world and it’s what will bring about better working and living conditions.
Citing laser technology as just one example, Goldschmied said, “Compare the laser work to what we had in the past. In the past was about making whiskers by hand, and it was a terrible and unhealthy work. Plus, honestly, without not a great average quality.”
But the denim sector has made progress since then.
“If you think about what the factory of jeans was 10 years ago and what it is today, it is day and night,” he continued. “Today a factory is—let’s say the good factory—they look like a hospital. Clean. Nothing is polluting and [it] is totally different kind of work. So, the innovation is not being, in my opinion, a benefit to the product itself, but is also…more importantly about what the technology means for the people.”
Thankfully, the denim community has come around to the fact that they must work together in order to make progress. It’s a far cry from how things used to be—and that’s a good thing.
“In the past, the industry was very vertical, and let’s say corporate also,” Goldschmied said. “And so every brand was working in a certain direction without communication with others. We live in an era that changed completely the game, in that we go horizontal, not vertical anymore. And we have realized very clearly that we can change the situation of our industry, but not only our industry, only if we were to work all together.”
Beyond collaboration, designing with eco-friendly fibers that have a lessened impact on the environment, such as REFIBRA™ technology by TENCEL™, are also moving things in the right direction. They’re also helping change the perception of what a jean is, according to Goldschmied, which is evolving from its history as men’s workwear into something much more comfortable.
It helps that progress in sustainability is not only the right thing to do, but also more profitable, especially as consumers are demanding it more and more. But it will take a new level of collaboration across the denim sector.
“We have to be able to communicate, to collaborate, to share research results, with, let’s say, our competition,” Goldschmied said. “[It] is totally different way of working, and this one is giving to us a chance, in my opinion, to really be effective and to change the world in some way, because it is a concept that is not only about the denim, but all [industries] of any kind.”
Check out the entire Modern Definition of Denim series.