September 29, 2023

From Milan to Mytholmroyd

On our recent tour of the Candiani Denim mill near Milan we were taken into the ‘special ops room’. This is where they sample new stuff and devise different wash and dye finishes, do things like pumice stone washing and WHERE THEY USE LASERS!

Play Video

None of this is really what we’re interested in as we only buy raw selvedge denim, but we do like to see all the options.

We were told that the laser could, without burning the cloth, fade the surface colour of a piece of denim to draw any effect or picture.

Obviously we asked “can you draw a cock and balls on the denim?” Being Italian the technician ignored us and said, “no but I will draw the Mona Lisa.”

Mona now hangs in the unit, a picture of the art of denim, framed by our friends TM Pictures in Hebden Bridge. A lovely memento of our trip with a camp twist. Hopefully we won’t have to cordon her off from crowds of tourists looking to get a selfie.