Honeycombs, sanforizing, selvedge… what do these three terms have in common? They all refer to denim. The process of making denim is a lot more complex than you might think and learning about denim can ultimately help you when buying denim. Here is an introduction to denim terminology.
Washes
Indigo
The blue dye used to color denim. It was originally extracted from plants but now it is typically synthetic.
Acid Wash
This is typically achieved by soaking pumice in chlorine and washing them. The result is a white, discolored look.
Vintage Wash
This wash can be described as looking like overtime, the jeans have accumulated a layer of dust.
Rinse Wash
The purpose of rinse wash is to make the denim wearable. Residual dye is removed from the jean in order for the color to stop running for a clean appearance.
Techniques and Processes
Rope Dying
This technique uses a group of un-dyed yarns that are wrapped together and dyed as a single-unit. Then, the rope is pushed through a machine and dipped into eight indigo baths and finally oxidized.
Selvedge
A procedure that prevents denim from from unraveling at the edge. This process is achieved through a traditional shuttle loom and selvedge denim tends to be more expensive.
Descriptors
Honeycombs
the faded lines on your jeans around the knees where the darker color has faded away are
Whiskers
Similar to honeycombs, whiskers are the horizontal faded creases where the indigo has worn off across the crotch area of the jeans
Slubbiness
The rough or uneven textured denim that is caused when the manufacturer causes irregularities in the yarn. While this is sometimes an accident, it is often sought after because of its uniqueness and the character it adds.
Weight
How much the yard of fabric weighs. Typically, denim weighs anywhere from 5-32 ounces and is divided into lightweight (1-12 ounces), mid-weight (12-16 ounces) and heavyweight (above 16 ounces).