The science of denim

Diana Vreeland once said, “Blue jeans are the most beautiful thing next to the gondola.”

When I was a little girl, jeans were my salvation from the itchy petticoats that came with the lace-trimmed dresses my mother would buy. I was definitely a blue-jean baby and, like most women, jeans became a wardrobe staple.

Little did I know then that jeans is—a science.

Dr. Denim shows us how it’s done.

Morten, Johannes and Alexander Graah have always turned to science to create the perfect pair of jeans. The heat of the sun plays a huge role in Dr. Denim’s success—from 1979’s hot summer month of June, when Morten began to toy with the idea of creating his own brand, to the beginning of Dr. Denim in July 2003, when the heat wave struck Europe.

The Graahs definitely have an affinity to the sun. No wonder things have been hot for the company.

Perhaps it is also Dr. Denim’s philosophy that “things have to feel right, or there’s just no sense in continuing.”

It’s not only the fit that makes the difference, but also the way you feel when you slip into a pair.

This season, the brand’s collection “Diabolus in Musica” has been inspired by music that urges one “to sin,” or the “Devil’s interval”. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that music and sin were linked.

The brand has adopted that spirit to bring in erotic influences into its new denim collection.

Dr. Denim puts a premium on choosing suppliers who are “driven by the same heart that beats at Dr. Denim,” to create jeans that fit customers to a T.

The construction, weight, dyeing techniques and finishes are calculated before production; lines are drawn with scientific precision; prototypes sent to members of the Graah family; and a series of tedious tasks takes place before a pair ever gets sold.

Visual cues

Jeans can say a lot about its wearer. Various visual cues on a pair can indicate one’s lifestyle or habits.

Serious wear on the inner thighs suggests that perhaps one has been eating too many cookies or cakes. Even wear on both thighs means the wearer is quite the nervous kind, with constant palm-to-lap rubbing when feeling stressed or uncomfortable.

A buttonhole worn out or a button missing shows one is constantly undressing in a hurry.

At Dr. Denim, fabric is a premium consideration. The brand considers factors such as fibre length, composition (adding hemp and cotton for rawness, polyester for softness and elastane for great stretch), density, surface treatment, and so on.

Who knew that one of the most simple, most casual items in the world could be so complicated?

But for the Graahs, “The feel of a perfect jeans fabric can’t be described or calculated. It just feels right.”

“Jeans is science. Astronauts know space, mechanics know cars, and Dr. Denim knows jeans,” they say.

Dr. Denim is available at Adora, 3/F Greenbelt 5. Ayala Center, Makati City