James Dean's Blue Jean is no longer popular: no less than 7,000 liters of water are needed to make a single pair of jeans. According to a recent report by the search platform Stylight, nearly 2.3 billion pairs of jeans are sold worldwide each year, or 73 per second. To slow down the pace, solutions are proposed. Wash it less, consume vintage... Or follow the example of Levi's boss Chip Bergh, who advises to "keep your jeans in the shower."
"Cover it with soap"
Appearing on CNBC in early October, Chip Bergh explained that, in his opinion, consumers wash their jeans far too often. To reduce the use of water-intensive washing machines, the boss recommends wearing your jeans in the shower and "covering them with soap as you would your body". In 2014, however, he was encouraging his customers not to wash his jeans at all. "I never said you shouldn't wash your jeans, but the real connoisseurs will tell you never to put your denim in a washing machine."
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Soaping up with your denim would therefore be a perfect solution to reduce the amount of household appliances and reduce their environmental impact. However, the Engie website reminds us that one washing cycle is equivalent to 50 litres of water. Substantial, certainly, but much less than the water required for the production of a pair of jeans. Shouldn't we simply make less of them rather than washing fully clothed?