Sandblasted Jeans Named as Killer Jeans

Photo: Courtesy of Levi-Strauss

When it comes to choosing the styles of apparel, I always love and feel more comfortable wearing clothes that come in worn out, used, or faded look. And my primary reason for choosing such style, apart from being cool and unique, is easy maintenance. For example in jeans, when I wear sandblasted or faded look denim trousers I don’t have to bother much in case a dirt stick on it. But little I know the production of sandblasted jeans put the health of the operator at great risk.

A couple of days ago, I read the press release of the popular Italian clothing brand Versace stating that they will now support in the campaign of other denim manufacturers worldwide to ban the practice of sandblasting.

Sandblasting is a technique used mainly in the garments producing countries when designing denim pants. In order to bring a fashionable faded or worn out denim pants, silica sand is used for styling. Sandblasting with silica sand makes a lot of dust and this fine dust, once inhaled, are very dangerous to the lungs as it could cause an acute form of silicosis and then results to death.

Considering the health condition of operators or production workers of fabrics needed for sandblasted jeans, a group of non-governmental organizations and trade unions named Clean Clothes Coalition (CCC) started their campaign to condemn the production of sandblasted jeans. The said campaign aims to improve the work conditions in the textile industry by ensuring that the workers’ health are not compromised.

Before Versace declared their support to stop sandblasting, there are already several famous clothing brands worldwide that joined in the campaign of CCC. To name some of them we have Benetton, Carrera Jeans, Gucci, Levi-Strauss, H&M, Pepe Jeans, and Replay.