At MAGIC Las Vegas fashion show, denim is having a moment

Whether stretched onto mannequins, draped over hangers or folded in tidy stacks, hundreds of thousands of designs are on display at MAGIC Las Vegas this week.

While about 78,000 industry insiders are scouring the show floor for the most promising fall 2020 styles, the old standby denim is having a moment.

Don Pietranczyk, brand director for West Coast Women’s Fashion, designed a denim trend display for the biannual fashion trade show at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center that highlights the textile in its most current facets.

“I feel like in the last decade, we may have seen a little bit of a shift away from denim,” Pietranczyk said. “I think we’re going to find a way to make them more sustainable, and therefore the cuts are going to be different and the fitting is going to be different and the shades are going to be different. And plus, in fashion, as you know, whenever something is out for a while, it needs to come back.”

Sustainability in fashion has proven to be a growing trend as several companies compete to reduce the resources required to produce jeans and denim jackets.

“The average pair of denim takes 1,500 gallons of water to produce, and at DL1961, our denim takes less than 10,” said Sandia Sivilli, vice president of global sales for New York-based DL1961 Premium Denim. “We use water-efficient botanic fibers like Tencel that use less water in the dying process, and we recycle 90 percent of the water.”

The company also has removed rivets from some models to make them more recyclable.

Other trends in the denim displays included fancy styles, light and dark shades, Western motifs, highlighting iconic brands and gender fluidity.

The “His? Hers? Theirs? Who cares?” display showcases denim tops, bottoms, jumpsuits and jackets being worn interchangeably by male and female-styled mannequins.

Pietranczyk sees the growing category as part of an ongoing conversation surrounding gender-neutral and gender-fluid styles.

“We started with Rob (Smith) from Phluid Project last August talking about the concept of it at all,” Pietranczyk said. “So then we continue to talk about it. And that’s another reason why I added that in the denim display, so that that conversation wasn’t just a one-off.”

Contact Janna Karel at jkarel@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jannainprogress on Twitter.