What Is Raw Denim?

How is raw denim made?

Raw denim is made exactly like other denim up to the point where the jeans are sewn; the difference is that the finished garments skip the garment wash that washed jeans go through. According to Cotton Incorporated, most denim is a yarn-dyed twill, usually a 3/1 or 2/1 twill or a broken twill, with indigo-dyed warp yarns and undyed filling yarns.

Dyeing and sizing the warp

Indigo has a very low affinity for cotton, so it concentrates in the outer layers of the yarn. Cotton Incorporated describes the result as an intense ring of colour around a white core, which is why the process is called ring dyeing. Before weaving, the warp is coated with size, a protective film; Cotton Incorporated gives a typical size add-on of 7–14% and notes that in many denim styles the size is left on the fabric as a stiffening agent for cutting and sewing.

Finishing the cloth at the mill

Writing in Textile World in 2018, a finishing specialist at the machine maker Monforts described the classic four-step finish for greige denim: singeing the face twice, stretching it lengthwise to set the width, straightening the weft so the legs do not twist, and compressive shrinkage. This last step is what Textile World calls sanforization (see Sanforized). Cloth that skips this step is described as unsanforised.

What raw denim skips

Washed jeans go through a garment wash after sewing. Cotton Incorporated's CottonWorks describes a basic rinse wash as desizing, softening and brightening without abrasion, and a stone wash as tumbling the garments with pumice that cuts the fabric surface. Dry finishing effects such as whiskering and hand sanding are added by the factory. Raw denim receives none of these, so whatever creases and fades it develops come from wear.

What are the properties of raw denim?

Raw denim is stiffer, darker and less dimensionally predictable than washed denim, because it still carries its size and has never been through a garment wash.

• Stiff hand. CottonWorks notes that sizing compounds make denim harsh and rigid, and that a rinse wash leaves out desizing when a rigid hand is wanted. Unwashed jeans keep that size.
• Dark shade. CottonWorks also notes that leaving out desizing helps retain the shade. Because indigo sits on the surface of the yarn, abrasion removes it easily and exposes the white core; on raw denim that abrasion comes from the wearer rather than from pumice.
• Personal fades. A 2019 University of Alberta thesis on raw denim describes owners avoiding washing to preserve the customised fades and marks that wear creates.
• Shrinkage. In the same Textile World article, the shrinkage potential of greige denim after stretching is given as up to 18%, against less than ±1% for compressively shrunk (Sanforized) fabric. That gap is why unsanforised raw denim can shrink noticeably at its first soak, while sanforised raw denim barely moves.

How does raw denim differ from washed denim?

Raw denim is the garment before any wash; rinse-washed and stone-washed denim are the same cloth after one of the factory washes described by CottonWorks.

Raw is also not the same as selvedge denim. Selvedge describes the finished edge of the cloth; raw describes whether the garment was washed. A pair can be one, both or neither.

How is raw denim graded or measured?

Raw denim has no official grade; it is described by fabric weight in ounces per square yard, by whether the cloth was compressively shrunk, and by its fibre content. Cotton Incorporated puts finished denim between 3.5 and 16.5 oz/yd², with 8.0–16.5 oz/yd² used for trousers, jeans and jackets. It gives the classic 14.5 oz bottom-weight construction as 60–64 warp yarns and 38–42 filling yarns per inch.

How does raw denim appear on a clothing label?

"Raw" never appears as a fibre name: the legal fibre-content label lists the fibres, such as cotton or elastane, and "raw", "rigid", "sanforized", "pre-shrunk" or "shrink-to-fit" are descriptive or trade terms on hangtags.

• United States. The FTC's guidance on the Textile and Wool Acts says most textile products must carry a label showing fibre content by generic name, the country of origin, and the identity of the manufacturer or another responsible business. Fibres under 5% are disclosed as "other fiber" unless they have a definite functional significance, such as a small amount of spandex for elasticity. Care labels fall under a separate FTC rule (16 CFR Part 423).
• European Union. Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 allows only the fibre names listed in its Annex I, where cotton and elastane are both listed. Fibre composition must be visible before purchase, online included. Fibres that cannot easily be stated at manufacture may be grouped as "other fibres", up to 5% individually or 15% together.

How do you tell good raw denim from poor raw denim?

Judge raw denim by what you can read and see: the stated weight, whether the cloth is shrunk, the fibre label, and signs that the "raw" garment has in fact been washed or finished.

• Find out whether it is sanforised. Look on the hangtag or ask. If the cloth is unsanforised, the size you buy is not the size you will wear: Levi Strauss & Co. tells buyers of its Shrink-to-Fit 501 jeans to choose 1 inch larger in the waist and 3 inches longer in the inseam than their usual size.
• Read the weight. Compare the stated oz/yd² against Cotton Incorporated's 8.0–16.5 oz jeans-weight range.
• Turn the leg inside out. The inside should look much paler than the face, because the filling yarns are undyed.
• Look at a cut thread. On a loose end inside a seam allowance, an indigo ring-dyed yarn shows a white core under the blue. That core is what wear will reveal as the jeans fade.
• Feel the hand. Raw denim that still carries its size feels stiff. A soft, supple "raw" jean may have been desized.
• Red flags. Whiskers at the hips, sanded thighs or uneven fading on a new pair are factory finishes, so the garment is not raw. "Selvedge" on the label does not mean raw, and "raw" does not mean selvedge.

How do you care for raw denim?

The usual advice is to wash raw denim rarely and gently, to keep its fades, but in a 2019 University of Alberta trial washing was the most effective way to reduce bacteria on it.

The 2019 University of Alberta thesis notes the common advice to wear new raw denim for at least six months without washing, and the popular alternative of freezing jeans to cut bacteria and odour. It calls the effectiveness of freezing unsubstantiated: in its trial, washing gave the largest and most lasting reduction in bacteria, while bacteria regrew faster on frozen fabric than on ironed or UV-treated fabric.

When washing, Levi Strauss & Co. suggests turning its Shrink-to-Fit jeans inside out and soaking them in cold water to preserve the colour, and says the hotter the water, the more they shrink. The same advice says to drip-dry them and put them back on while slightly damp so they shape to the body. For unsanforised denim, decide on purpose whether you want that first shrink, and use warmer water only if you do.

Is raw denim sustainable?

Raw denim avoids the factory garment washes, but no source Faz found measures its whole life cycle against washed jeans, so it cannot be called sustainable as a category.

The washes it skips are not trivial. CottonWorks gives a typical desizing load of 8 parts water to 1 part fabric by weight, and says a stone-wash run of 100 pounds of jeans uses 250 pounds of pumice and 140 gallons of water. Those steps do not happen to raw denim. What happens instead depends on how often, and how hot, the owner washes them. Washed denim is changing too: CottonWorks notes that laccase enzyme treatments, which avoid the neutralisation step that bleaching needs, cut water, chemical and time use, and that ozone treatments, which promise similar savings, are still in the developmental stage.