Behind the Scenes: How Jeans are Made

I went to a Jesuit high school with a dress code (collared shirt tucked in, dress pants, no shorts), and so spent most of my teenage years in, literally, fancy pants. When I got to college, it was totally weird to wear jeans to class, but once I got in the habit again, I haven’t been able to wear non-demin pants unless it’s dress-up time.

Like me, you likely wear jeans most days of the week. And though we see them everyday, and they look like most other pants, they actually have a really fascinating manufacturing process that’s worth checking out in this video:Core77 highlights this video from How It’s Made, where they take a huge roll of denim — 1,500 square feet, larger than most of our apartments — and after cutting it into squares, cut the patterns for 100 pairs of jeans at a time.

The variety of special production machines required to put a simple pair of jeans together is pretty astonishing. And check out the cool vacuum-type thingy that turns them right side out around 4:00.”

For another, beautifully-photographed look at the process, check out this photo series by David Friedman