The Designer on a Pair of Jeans Seven Years in the Making
Before launching WASEW, designer Hironori Kanan worked with the Japanese denim brand FULLCOUNT. WASEW’s first denim setup was finally released in 2022, seven years after the project began. Each time he returned to denim, he found himself unable to move forward, drawn deeper into its details. That struggle came from knowing denim too well. Here, Hironori Kanan speaks not only as a designer, but as a true denim enthusiast, about WASEW’s first jeans, the “Lot 0110 TYPE STRAIGHT.”
Learning from Vintage — A Modern Left-Hand Twill
[Hironori Kanan]
The project began with the idea of creating WASEW’s original left-hand twill denim, inspired by a 1944 Lee 101B that I personally own. In the end, it took seven years, but with the help of many people, I was able to shape the kind of denim I had always imagined.
The first pair of jeans I truly became conscious of was the Lee 101B. It had a major influence on how I think about denim. I still wear it sometimes, and every time I do, it reminds me why it remains one of my personal roots.
Using that Lee 101B as the starting point, I tried to rethink the parts that no longer fit the present, and the parts I felt could be improved. I’d like to share that process here.
The Japanese Indigo Blue
To find the indigo blue I had in mind, I made repeated trips to Ibara and Kojima in Okayama. I wasn’t simply looking for fabric — I was looking for the right yarn, dye, and weave. Fading only appears through wear, but the quality of that fading is determined by the yarn, dye, and weave. There is hardly any need to explain it now, but Okayama is world-renowned for indigo dyeing. For WASEW’s left-hand twill denim, only true Japanese indigo blue would do.
The warp yarn was spun to recreate a natural long slub texture, using primarily Pima cotton blended with American cotton.
Normally, dyeing is done at high temperatures to create deep color quickly. Indigo dyeing, however, is carried out at room temperature, which means the yarn must be dyed repeatedly to build depth. By repeating the process of exposing the dyed yarn to air and letting it oxidize into indigo blue around ten times, the exact shade WASEW was looking for finally emerged.
The Rich Texture of Vintage Looms
Denim is woven in a 3/1 twill, with the indigo warp appearing on the surface. When setting up the loom, the warp tension is kept as loose as possible and the fabric is woven slowly and carefully. This method requires a high level of skill and takes more time, making it inefficient by modern standards, but it gives the fabric its distinctive dry touch and rich expression.
In finishing, unnecessary processes are avoided, and the fabric is simply washed for shrink control. This reduces stress on the material, leaving more of the cotton’s natural softness and oils intact, which makes the fabric feel especially soft and comfortable against the skin.
By weaving it in left-hand twill, the twill lines stand out clearly and add a slightly more refined impression. The deep indigo yarn and textured surface result in WASEW’s original denim fabric — classic and standard in spirit, but with a distinct character of its own.
WASEW Detail and Craftsmanship
The fly front uses a zipper engraved with the WASEW logo. The buttons are plain brass-tone donut buttons, while the front pockets and coin pocket are reinforced with UFO rivets. Selvedge is also used on the reverse side of the coin pocket opening.
Although the Lee 101 served as a reference, I wanted this to be a truly standard pair of denim, which is why I chose home-plate-shaped back pockets. The pocket openings are reinforced with hidden bartacks, and the subtle gray thread showing through is one of the key details. A piss name is also inserted at the lower right edge of the right back pocket so that it peeks out just beneath the hem of a T-shirt.
The back yoke is cut slightly higher, while the back pockets are secured with navy triple stitching to hold the pocket lining in place and add a subtle workwear feel. The raised center belt loop and other vintage denim specifications are also carefully incorporated. The yoke and back crotch are stitched at 7.14 mm (9 gauge), the inseam uses a 6.35 mm (8 gauge) flat-felled seam, the side seams are open-stitched, and the selvedge width is set slightly narrower at 7.5 mm.
The stitching uses core yarn with a polyester center wrapped in cotton. As the denim ages, the stitching also changes with it, but because it is stronger than pure cotton thread, it remains durable over long wear and reduces the risk of threads breaking just as the jeans begin to truly settle in.
In addition, three colors of stitching thread are used, with thread counts adjusted depending on the part. In total, around ten different types of thread are used throughout the garment. Stitch density is also finely tuned by area, giving the denim depth and dimensionality.
What It Means to Make Denim
It was never about creating something innovative or extraordinary. As someone who has spent years around denim, it was about giving form to that affection. In the end, what I pursued over seven years was my own love for denim. Perhaps the true goal of WASEW denim is simply this — that denim enthusiasts will wear denim made by another denim enthusiast.
"THE DENIM"
How WASEW Denim Fabric Is Made
