Fabrics: COTTLE

COTTLE Bengara Fabric

Not familiar with the brand? Founded in 2015, COTTLE has been running for almost 7 years now. Read here for the full dish on this brand!

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This textile concept took about 3 years to fully develop. Originally developed by Kichinosuke Tonomura at the Kurashiki Honzome Handwoven Research Institute, the makers wanted to reproduce his iconic indigo and bengara dyed selvedge denim for this garment.

For this purpose, Cottle hand-dyed cotton thread with all-natural Bengara (Indian Red) pigment several times and rewound the thread into a spool. On their first attempt making this sample, the thread had broken several times. This is was perhaps due to the softness of the dyed yarn which is sometimes weakened by the natural dying process. After several trial and error experiments, they were able to increase the strength of the yarn with wax and were thus able to improve the flexibility of this indigo yarn without compromising the integrity of the natural dyes.

This improved textile presented an amazing opportunity to experiment further with garment production. Makers manufactured this denim with a jacquard loom to reproduce the selvedge (fabric edge) and then produced the main body of the denim using a shuttle loom. This process takes a tremendous amount of time and effort. In order to preserve the hand-woven texture (making each garment subtly unique), they incorporated a cotton nep thread as well as a thick linen thread which is twisted into the weft of the denim. By weaving in thicker threads than usual and weaving them by hand with a shuttle loom over a long period of time, the textile is soft, comfortable, with almost an airy feel. Although it is made of only natural materials, it has good elasticity due to the characteristics of the weft. All in all, it takes about half a year from start to finish; from dyeing the threads to weaving the fabric.

COTTLE Bengara Fabric

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