So firstly, of course, thank you for having me here today. When I first talked to Paula and her team about today's event, the idea of the modern as a move towards standardization came up. And I think that this can be a really useful framework for us to begin to consider jeans and how they fit into the context of today. An organization called the Global Denim Project estimates that on any given day, over half the world's population is in jeans. This is a truly staggering statistic, and it very much positions jeans as the great equalizer of clothing. According to Cotton, Inc, the average American owns seven pairs of jeans. In Europe the average is five, in Brazil the average is six and Japan the average is three. Now the five pocket riveted jean as we know it can be traced back to Levi Strauss and Co's denim work wear of the late 19th century. They first patented their 501 jean, originally called their Double X model, in 1873, and it has been in continuous production since. So this has led many to posit that the 501 may in fact be the best selling garment of all time. Given this long spanning history, a key question arises. What is it that makes jeans continue to be relevant generation after generation? Now the classic way to answer that question is to look at the countless cultural references that imbue jeans with meaning, whether it be film, television, music, politics. John Wayne, Marlon Brando on his Harley, or Brooke Shields in her sexy Calvin's, each of these images really inform on us as consumers. But while these references might be helpful in answering why we each own a pair of jeans, I don't know that they are that helpful or adequately that they answer why we each own seven. I think to answer that question, we have to look at the jeans themselves. We have to look at their color, the countless washes that are available on the market today. Also the way that jeans break down, fade, rip. These stylistic elements, these formal elements of jeans are some of the key reasons we continue to buy more and more jeans every year. The image just here shows a type of wear pattern called whiskering, that's really typical of contemporary jeans' lines. Wear patterns like this historically formed naturally in denim based on the body of the wearer, so based on the lifestyle, the habits, the movements. For example, how a wearer might sit, their posture, how long they might sit in a given day. Even what they put in their pockets, how often they rub the top of their thighs, each of these habits really left an imprint, a very personal imprint, on the jeans themselves. Now the reason for this is because of the nature of denim itself. Denim threads are dyed blue through a process called rope dyeing or long chain dyeing. In this process, what happens is that the blue dye only penetrates the outermost layers of the thread. So the core of the thread is left white. You can see that pretty clearly in the image here of some threads from Cone Mills, which is down in Greensboro, North Carolina. What this means is that as you wear your denim, as you wash your denim, blue starts to brush off. And it increasingly exposes the white core underneath. Now natural wear patterns are most often seen on the market today in what is called, quote unquote, raw denim, which basically just means untreated denim. The images just here show the same pair of jeans. And it gives you a sense of how extreme these natural wear patterns can be. So the first image shows the jeans brand new. The second images shows the jeans after constant wear for 8 months, and the third after constant wear for 15 months. The marks on these jeans are entirely unique to the wearer. For example, you can see where his knees hit from the sort of starburst effect and fading on both legs. You can even see where he put his iPhone for the first eight months. You can also see that after eight months he started switching his iPhone in and out of both pockets. He probably didn't want to have such a stark wear pattern on the jeans. Raw denim enthusiasts recommend constantly wearing, but barely washing your jeans to achieve effects like this to maximize the wear patterns. So it's likely that this particular pair of jeans was washed just twice during a 15 month period. Now obviously, that's an extreme approach. A question that comes up a lot with raw denim is, what do you do if your jeans start to smell? Raw denim advocates really say to freeze your denim to kill the odor producing bacteria, rather than washing it, so that you can preserve the integrity of these marks. Now, again, this is an extreme example. So it's not that surprising that companies recognized the average consumer is not patient enough to wear out their jeans naturally. So what we've seen is that the aging process has been artificially accelerated and industrialized. The image here shows workers at a factory in Mexico adding wear patterns by sanding the jeans down by hand. So what were once very personal, unique marks, are now standardized across product lines. Before we even get to this point of the jeans being sanded down, the jeans will be washed several times in large industrial washers like this. They'll typically be washed with some amount of stones. This is of course where we get the term stone washing. Acid washing and other common technique uses the same stones as stone washing, but the stones are pre-soaked in bleach or other enzymes. Again, the stones and the bleach it helps to breakdown the fabric even further, and it also can add a decorative pattern. All denim on the market today that is not designated as raw has been put through some degree of this pre-aging. So what we get now with the denim industry is a tremendous environmental fallout. The sheer amount of water waste and energy waste in the denim industry is colossal, not to mention the working conditions you get in the factories around the world. Just the blue dust that comes off of the jeans as they're sanded down is enough to fill the air of the factories and risk clogging the worker's lungs. So what this means is that as we move further into the 21st century, I think jeans occupy an increasingly problematic space. On the one hand as cultural symbols they connote individuality, youth, creativity even, and rebellion. But as physical objects they are mass-produced, homogenizing garments that have had a truly detrimental impact on the environment, thank you. >> [APPLAUSE]
