Reinventing Denim

Denim. Aside from jeans, anything made in this hard wearing fabric was pretty much the definition of passé until very recently. At the spring/summer 2015 shows, designers delved head-first into redefining the fabric, keen to reposition it as on point and stylish, rather than simply something hardy enough to hold together through years of toil.

From light to dark washes, trim to oversize fits, 1990s distressed to sophisticated selvedge, denim isn’t just a byword for jeans this season – read on for a full breakdown of the trend and the key pieces you should be looking to introduce to your wardrobe this SS15.

The Denim Jacket, Re-Imagined

Invented in the early 20th century and developing into a casual wardrobe staple just a few decades later, the denim jacket is well and truly back for spring/summer 2015 – not that it ever really went away, if we’re honest.

Yet there’s something altogether smarter about the denim jacket this season, with designers like Christopher Bailey at British luxury label Burberry Prorsum plucking the age-old classic from its humble origins and repositioning it as a more sophisticated piece.

Bailey used trim, lightweight denim jackets as a substitute to button-down shirts – layering blazers, statement scarves and an even a denim trench coat over them:

Prada

In Milan, Miuccia Prada’s fairly sober collection of time-honoured classics came over all denim – despite the fact that a lot of was not.

It was Prada’s topstitch detailing, applied to outerwear and trousers, which gave both denim and non-denim jackets that immediately discernible denim appearance.

The result was a collection that – although not entirely made out of denim – felt like a line-up of sharp and sophisticated denim pieces:

E. Tautz

Also eager to elevate the denim jacket was tailoring aficionado Patrick Grant, whose British seaside-inspired collection was awash with selvedge denim jackets in silhouettes that ranged from blousons and blazers to something that resembled a field coat.