Façon Jacmin

The den­im used in their coll­ec­tions comes from Ita­ly or Japan. The Japa­ne­se den­im is made in a fac­to­ry which is very respectful of its employees. Accor­ding to Façon Jacmin, this is some­thing that is typi­cal of Japa­ne­se culture. 

The clo­thes are assem­bled by a small fami­ly busi­ness in Bul­ga­ria. Due to the pro­duc­tion taking place in Euro­pe, the busi­ness will have to com­ply with strict Euro­pean labour laws and regu­la­ti­ons. We the­r­e­fo­re assu­me that the clo­thes are ethi­cal­ly made.

The autumn/​winter coll­ec­tions also fea­ture knit­wear, which is pro­du­ced in Belgium.

Façon Jacmin works with Japa­ne­se den­im, which is a very high qua­li­ty type of den­im. Tha­t’s becau­se the fabric is very tight­ly woven using spe­cial Japa­ne­se tech­ni­ques, making the den­im strong and lon­ger lasting. 

In the 1940s, Ame­ri­ca wan­ted to sim­pli­fy and speed up its pro­duc­tion of den­im. To do so, they bought new machi­nes and sold their ones to Japa­ne­se manu­fac­tu­r­ers. Alt­hough Japa­ne­se manu­fac­tu­r­ers are now working with newer machi­nes, they have retai­ned the high qua­li­ty of pre-1940s denim.

The den­im is dyed using indi­go and efforts are made to ensu­re none of the dye ends up in rivers. The Japa­ne­se manu­fac­tu­r­ers have a very sophisti­ca­ted water puri­fi­ca­ti­on sys­tem which pre­vents water con­ta­mi­na­ti­on. This means that it makes no dif­fe­rence whe­ther they use natu­ral or syn­the­tic indi­go to dye the den­im becau­se the dye is in a clo­sed-loop and the fac­to­ry does not dump pol­lu­ted water.

This den­im brand will soon be using GOTS-cer­ti­fied cot­ton for the first time. Initi­al­ly, their coll­ec­tions will be com­po­sed of 25% orga­nic cot­ton but they want to increase this over time. A step in the right direction! 

Do you have pairs of old jeans lying around? Give them a second life by drop­ping them off at Façon Jacmin! The brand upcy­cles old jeans into fun access­ories, but also wants to replace their paper bags and pack­a­ging using them. Every year they release a cap­su­le coll­ec­tion of upcy­cled designs, hand made in their ate­liers in Ant­werp and Paris. 

Part of the Façon Jacmin coll­ec­tion has a fair­ly short sup­p­ly chain. Inde­ed, the design stage hap­pens in Bel­gi­um, the den­im is then pro­du­ced in Ita­ly while other coll­ec­tions are pro­du­ced in Bul­ga­ria. The chain is the­r­e­fo­re enti­re­ly Euro­pean, other than the pie­ces that are made from Japa­ne­se den­im, which has obvious­ly cover­ed grea­ter distances. 

A small part of the coll­ec­tion uses wool. Unfort­u­na­te­ly we can­not assess whe­ther ani­mal wel­fa­re is taken into account here due to a lack of infor­ma­ti­on about the ori­g­ins of the wool. 

Façon Jacmin clo­thes are tim­e­l­ess and the colours do not fade. Every item of clot­hing comes out of the washing machi­ne loo­king as glo­rious as it did on day 1. The qua­li­ty of the den­im also ensu­res their long life.

Façon Jacmin scores reason­ab­ly well in terms of trans­pa­ren­cy. The brand pro­vi­des infor­ma­ti­on about their pro­duc­tion loca­ti­ons and the mate­ri­als they use. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, this infor­ma­ti­on is not always very spe­ci­fic. When a brand dis­c­lo­ses their manu­fac­tu­r­ers (and not just the coun­try), or has obtai­ned cer­tain cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­ons, then it’s easier to assess how ethi­cal and sus­tainable that brand real­ly is.