Denim Dusk Poncho
I was responsible for timing the production process. This involved determining how long each step takes, timing every stage of production, and documenting the entire manufacturing workflow step by step.
We started with a pile of old jeans. Faded knees, frayed hems, the kind of stuff most people throw out. Honestly, it didn't look like much at first. But that was sort of the point.
For our ReMode course with River Woods, the brief was simple: take old denim and make something wearable out of it. No new fabrics allowed. We ended up making the Denim Dusk Poncho, and I'm genuinely proud of how it turned out. It showed me that working sustainably doesn't mean compromising on how something looks.
One thing that stuck with me: it takes about 7,000 liters of water to produce a single pair of jeans. Plus all the chemicals and energy on top of that. Once you know that, you look at a pile of old denim very differently.
We tried to use as much of the material as possible. The lower section of the poncho is made from deadstock fabric, so nothing new had to be produced. We got pretty close to zero waste in the end. Almost every scrap ended up somewhere in the design.
Got old jeans lying around?
You can drop off your worn denim at any River Woods store. They'll make sure it gets reused instead of ending up in a landfill. It's a small thing, but it adds up.
Your closet clean out could actually become someone's new favorite piece.