Jeans made out of sugar cane

A Japanese company is making jeans out of a blend of sugar cane and selvage denim. The cane used is Sweet Sorghum, otherwise known as Sweet Millet. It’s a type of grass grown all over the world for making a molasses-like syrup and animal feed.

The Sugarcane jeans that feature this fiber have a faint sweet smell and may have occasional woody tufts poking out of the fabric!

Sugar Cane Jeans are a uniquely Japanese denim made from — you guessed it: sugar cane. For many years Sugar Cane Jeans were a ferociously guarded Japanese secret but today the brand is attracting global attention.

Interestingly, Sugar Cane prefer to use the vintage term “dungarees” in preference to the term “jeans” to discribe their product: “The word, ”jeans”, has become the vernacular for faux denim fashion wear that masquerades as the tough, classic waist overalls history made famous.”.

Sugar Cane Jeans are cut from original and truly outstanding Japanese selvage denim. Japanese selvage denim is arguably the finest in the world. Japanese selvage denim is made on old style shuttle looms rather than modern projectile looms.

In simple terms this means that the cross thread goes back and forth during the weaving process. Modern looms, shoot each cross thread through individually, hence the edge of the cloth is frayed rather than clean. No shuttle looms have be made for over 40 years as they can only make cloth about 30 inches wide whereas projectile looms can make fabric 60 inches or even wider for much less money.