KAIHARA Corp., a denim manufacturer based in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, known as a world-renowned denim production area, has launched the "Cruising JEANS" project to produce jeans with denim fabrics exposed to sea breezes during cruising -- the first of its kind in the world.

(Video: https://youtu.be/riGzuUnZofw)

(Photo: http://prw.kyodonews.jp/opn/release/201707203916/?images)

Japan's fashion industry is exposed to global competition. In an effort to outstrip its competitors, KAIHARA Corp., known for its "KAIHARA DENIM" brand, has developed a unique method of producing jeans that cannot be seen elsewhere in the world. Specifically, a sail is made with denim fabrics and exposed to sea breezes during cruising before being processed into jeans.

Denim fabrics, which are fully exposed to breezes in the Seto Inland Sea as a sail, take on a unique tinge and do not easily fade in color because substances -- for example sodium and magnesium -- contained in sea breezes combine with indigo in the materials.

In other words, KAIHARA Corp. has created its original products in this project by exposing denim fabrics, produced in Fukuyama that faces the Seto Inland Sea, to breezes in the inland sea.

After cruising over a total distance of more than 700 kilometers in a 40-day period, calling at 14 ports, KAIHARA Corp. processed the sail made of denim fabrics into more than 10 items, ranging from jeans, T-shirts and bags to shoes, and put them on sale.

KAIHARA Corp. allows members of the general public to not only view the manufacturing process of giving distressed effects to denim fabrics but also participate in the manufacturing of jeans by cruising on a boat equipped with a sail made of denim fabrics.

Completely blue scenes -- the blue sky, the blue ocean and blue denim -- are new landscapes unique to Fukuyama, a city facing the sea. Through the "Cruising JEANS" project, KAIHARA Corp. has offered a value of slow fashion in the age when fast fashion is blooming.

Official Website: http://www.kaihara-denim.com/english/index.html