Inside The Factory - Series 8

Episode
Episode 3 - Jeans
Broadcast Info
2024 (59 mins)
Description
Gregg Wallace visits not one but two factories to explore the fascinating secrets behind how Welsh jeans brand, Hiut make their trousers. He’s following production of one of their bestselling pairs for men, The Hack in organic denim. But before he can get sewing, he needs the denim cloth, so he travels 750 miles from West Wales to Northern Italy. The Candiani denim mill produces twenty million square metres of denim every year, which is enough to make thirteen million pairs of jeans. Overseeing delivery of the key raw ingredient, cotton, is factory owner, Alberto Candiani. He tells Gregg that the length, strength and colour of the cotton fibres are important considerations when making denim - the whiter the cotton, the better the quality. The cotton comes from different farms across the world, so it must be mixed to create a consistent blend. Then it travels through a ‘carder’ which untangles and aligns the fibres before passing through another set of machines which further blend and untangle the fibres. Gregg is amazed how the cotton he saw being unloaded has so quickly been transformed into soft, smooth fibres. Next Gregg enters the factory’s enormous spinning department where 25 enormous 36-metre-long machines simultaneously spin the woolen fibre onto 6,000 spools of yarn. Amazingly, as each length is spun, tiny imperfections are purposefully engineered into the yarn to give the finished cloth extra texture and character. The yarn is wound onto huge cylinders and taken to the dyehouse where Gregg meets Simon Giuliani. Simon shows Gregg how a huge machine first dyes the yarn grey to give it a base tone, before being plunged into tanks of synthetic indigo dye. But as the yarn emerges from the first tank, Gregg notices a problem: it’s not blue, but bright green! Simon explains that the yarn turns from green to blue as it oxidises. Gregg watches as the finished yarn turns the lovely deep indigo blue of denim. Due to the unique nature of the indigo dye, it doesn’t penetrate the cotton fibres all the way through, but instead just coats the surface, which is why a well-worn pair of blue jeans turn white in certain areas. Half a million miles of indigo-coloured yarn are produced at the denim mill each day and they all head for the weaving department. Inside the incredibly loud weaving room Gregg discovers why one side of denim cloth is dark blue and one side is almost white - it’s because the weft yarn that runs across the blue warp threads is white, producing the distinctive look. After passing through multiple finishing stages, the denim cloth is quality checked before heading to the Hiut jeans factory in Cardigan, Wales. Gregg meets master cutter Claudio Belotti who uses a special automated cutting device to make quick work of Gregg’s denim, cutting out all the pieces for his pair of jeans. Then it’s on to the main floor of the factory to learn how everything is sewn together. Gregg sees how a team of highly skilled specialist sewers attach all the pieces of the jeans together, from the ‘yolk’ panels at the rear, to the pockets and the fly. Once all the sewing is complete, the iconic metal rivets are added. The original purpose of the rivets when invented in the 19th century was to reinforce the jeans in areas susceptible to ripping, but thanks to modern stitching techniques rivets are no longer structurally integral but remain a defining feature of almost all jeans. The buttons are added to the fly and then the jeans are packed up and shipped out of the dispatch area. Elsewhere in the episode, Cherry Healey visits a zip factory to learn how the ubiquitous fastener is made; and she heads to the research and development facility of a denim manufacturer to witness pioneering, environmentally friendly ways of distressing denim to make a new pair of jeans look old. Historian, Ruth Goodman discovers an unknown name in the history of jeans who helped to shape their design forever; and uncovers the fascinating history of indigo dye.
Genre
Science; Technology; Textiles

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Inside The Factory - Series 8". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/247838 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)