Footwear for women
NIKE is continuing its current love affair with indigo, announcing a collaboration with London Cloth Company (LCC) on a new women’s only footwear collection using the mill’s handwoven denim.
Indigo is the shade of the season for the sports brand, who have already used it on a hand-dyed Nike Lunar Epic Flyknit, the Aizome Nike Air Force 1s and as part of a collaboration with Japanese brand Loop wheeler.
Nike has now teamed with LCC, the only mill in the UK that weaves denim, to use their indigo-dyed fabric on three iconic Nike silhouettes – the Nike Blazer Mid LX, Nike Cortez Classic LX and Nike Air Max 1 LX.
“The yarn that we use is thicker than normal denim,” commented Daniel Harris, founder of LCC, who has been perfecting his hand-woven, indigo-dyed fabric for the last five years. “It is two-ply in both warp and weft. We weave it very wide and shrink it a lot. The yarn is rope-dyed so that the garment will slowly accumulate wear and develop character.”
The textured herringbone-patterned fabric has now been used alongside indigo-coloured leather to highlight the heel, tongue, and Nike’s famous Swoosh, and complemented with gold-coloured lace tips for a modern finish to a classic cloth.
As well as the high-quality denim, which can take two to three days just to set up for weaving, Nike was also drawn to London Cloth Company for its story – LCC is the first mill to open in London in more than 100 years.
“As a textile designer, it was so inspiring to be able to visit the London Cloth Mill in London, try out their machinery and experience their manufacturing process from yarn to finished cloth,” commented Marie Crow, Nike Material Design Director for Nike Women Sportswear. “It was incredible to see how our material design direction could be interpreted through such traditional methods of make, bringing a unique update to three of our icons.” – AFP Relaxnews