Today’s conversation is about something the denim industry rarely wants to look at directly, and that’s water. Not recycled water in factories. Not marketing claims. But the groundwater that actually makes cotton possible in the first place.

This is the first episode of a two-part Jeansland special called Water: Above and Below. For this conversation, I’m joined by Rick Kellison and Brent Crossland to talk about the Ogallala Aquifer and why it matters so much to American cotton, especially on the Texas High Plains, where cotton depends on supplemental irrigation to survive.

Rick spoke at our very first Transformers event back in 2015, where he warned the industry about water risk and the future of cotton on the High Plains. Nearly ten years later, we talk about what’s actually happened since then, how farmers have learned to do more with less, what an aquifer really is, why the Ogallala is a finite resource, and how much of U.S. cotton production depends on it.

We also talk about soil health, irrigation technology, forage systems, and why integrating cotton, cattle, and crop rotation can reduce water use while improving long-term farm viability. And we look at the disconnect between how brands talk about water, and how rarely they ask where their cotton’s water actually comes from.

This is Part One of a two-part series.

Part Two of 'Water: Above and Below' drops next week, where we dig into the work happening on the ground, the farmer-led research behind it, the endowment that keeps it going, and what brands can actually do if they want to make a real difference. We also widen the lens to look at other major water users, including AI and energy, and what all of this means for the future.

Brent Crossland Linked-In
Rick Kellison Linked-In

Thank you to our sponsor Inside Denim.

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A conversation with a friend about international politics turns into a simple question. If so much of the world is disturbed by the direction the United States has been taking, why doesn’t everyone just band together and try going it without the U.S.?

That question leads Andrew to what he calls the Jeansland Nations, the countries where most of the world’s denim is produced. From there, the episode becomes a closer look at supply chain realities and geopolitical truths, not judgments about people, cultures, or national character.

From China and Vietnam to Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Mexico, and Egypt, Andrew looks at where jeans are actually made today and what those countries reveal about stability, employment, and economic dependence.

This episode is not about taking sides. It is about understanding how power, labor, and money move through the global denim industry, and why doing things on your own is often more complicated than it sounds.

Thank you to our sponsor Inside Denim.

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Andrew sits down with Piero Turk, a longtime friend from the old Italian denim days, when companies were small and you learned the business by doing everything yourself.

For those who don’t know Piero, he’s a freelance designer who started in 1983 and has worked with major jean brands across Japan, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, New York, Italy, Turkey, Pakistan, and the UK. He’s collaborated with Andrew at Kingpins, and his ideas are widely respected and used. Original ideas are rare in this industry. Piero has had more than a few.

They revisit Team Kit, Japan, laundries, and why Italy once had a real advantage that was almost impossible to copy. Taste, proximity, and lived experience mattered in a way spreadsheets never could.

Then the conversation turns. Globalization, profit, and the things people don’t like to say out loud. Piero is blunt about luxury denim, calls out sustainability claims that ignore labor realities, and shares a pricing example that’s funny at first and then quietly disturbing.

The episode closes with one simple rule that could change everything: If you want to sell in the West, you follow Western labor and safety rules.

A simple idea. Very complicated consequences. We're happy to share this interview with him with you.

Thank you to our sponsor Inside Denim.

Piero Turk Instagram

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Happy New Year. 2026 is here and Andrew starts the year with a reset on where real power lives in the textile world.

He talks about the four major cotton traders: Louis Dreyfus, Cargill, Olam, and Ecom. Governments and sovereign wealth funds now control much of what the world consumes. Abu Dhabi owns 45% of Louis Dreyfus. Singapore and Saudi Arabia control Olam. Trading what we need is as powerful as trading oil, and most people in denim don't think about it.

Then Andrew shifts to Egypt. The Denim and Jeans organization is holding its second show in Cairo this month, and it's worth paying attention to. Egypt's textile industry is growing. New mills, Turkish IP, Chinese investment. Unlike so much of the industry hanging on or going backwards, Egypt is building forward.

A five minute reset on commodity power and why Egypt's rise matters. A hopeful way to start the year.

Thank you to our sponsor Inside Denim.

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This week, Andrew sits down with Shamin Vogel, editorial director and co-publisher of of WeAr Media Group—the people behind WeAr Global Magazine, one of the most widely read fashion trade publications in the world, and WeAr Denim, the biannual deep dive for the denim supply chain, backed by a monthly newsletter that actually gets read—to talk about where fashion really is right now, and why so much of it feels off.

They dig into the tension between growth and meaning, why sustainability still has no shared definition, and how fashion lost its ability to lead culture instead of chase it. Shamin brings a rare, long-term perspective shaped by decades of industry observation, global publishing, and a deep belief that fashion is a lifestyle business first, not a financial spreadsheet.

The conversation moves easily from denim and luxury to retail, media trust, trade shows, and the uncomfortable truth about why doing nothing feels safer than taking risks. It’s not a hype-driven episode. It’s a clear-eyed one about perception, responsibility, and what actually lasts.

If you care about fashion beyond trends, and want to understand the forces shaping what survives next, this one’s worth your time.

Thank you to our sponsor Inside Denim.

Shamin Vogel
Editorial Director & Co-Publisher, WeAr Media Group & WeAr Denim
WeAr Media Group, WeAr Book Store, WeAr LinkedIn, Instagram
WeAr Denim Newsletter
Shamin's Personal Linked-In

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This episode starts in 1975, just after Portugal’s Carnation Revolution. A dictatorship ends. No civil war. No collapse. Just a quiet reset and a country that suddenly has to figure out how to function without fear, hierarchy, or shortcuts.

Then we jump to now. Portugal is one of the strongest-performing economies in Europe, and almost nobody is talking about it.

So the question is not “what happened?” It’s “how long did it take?”

In five minutes, Andrew looks at what decades of underinvestment actually do to a country, why revolutions don’t fix systems overnight, and how real change tends to show up slowly, boringly, and all at once. Roads. Education. Institutions. Confidence.

This isn’t a hype piece or a travel diary. It’s a short reflection on patience, competence, and why the long game usually wins, even if no one is watching.

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Sophie Bramel is the technical editor at Inside Denim, and she watches the entire global denim ecosystem. Brands, mills, fibers, innovation, sustainability. All of it.

In this conversation, Andrew and Sophie trace her path from music and fashion reporting to becoming one of the industry's most trusted observers. She talks about why denim mills feel like "cathedrals to blue," why true innovation takes decades (she uses Tencel™ as the perfect example), and why the industry talks sustainability far more than it actually implements it.

They dig into labor equity, the global South, and the real limits of circularity. Sophie doesn't sugarcoat the challenges. Chemical recycling is still opaque. Wages haven't kept up. Clothing is the one thing that hasn't gotten more expensive, and that's not normal.

They also talk about trade shows (too many?), what young writers should do if they want to cover fashion, and why denim is one of the few corners of the industry where deep reporting still matters. Sophie's take? If you're just copy-pasting press releases, you won't survive.

If you care about how this industry actually works, listen to this one.

Thank you to our sponsor Inside Denim.

Sophie Bramel
Technical Editor, Inside Denim
Inside Denim, LinkedIn, Instagram, Bluesky, Threads

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In this week’s episode of Andrew’s Take, Andrew breaks down COP30 in Belém, Brazil and why so many people still don’t know what COP is or why the world gathers every year to discuss climate goals that rarely materialize.

He walks through the entire arc, from COP’s 1992 origins to the Kyoto years, the Copenhagen disaster, the Paris moment of optimism, and the long loop of promises made and ignored. COP30 added its own contradictions: billions pledged for adaptation and forest protection, a strong Amazon backdrop, and the UN declaring “cooperation is alive,” even as the US and UK barely showed up.

Andrew also looks at what was missing: no fossil fuel phase-out, no clarity on who pays for what, and an open runway for polyester production to keep expanding. The numbers are blunt. We are nowhere near the 1.5°C target, and emissions need to fall 43 percent in the next five years.

A clear, honest walk through the history, the progress, and the uncomfortable truth of a process that keeps sounding like a victory speech delivered by the losing team.

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“If the supply chain isn’t something I can be proud of, the garment isn’t worth making.”— Menno van Meurs, Founder of Tenue de Nîmes and Tenue.

Menno van Meurs runs one of the most respected denim stores in Europe, Tenue de Nîmes in Amsterdam. He also makes his own jeans under the Tenue brand. He's not chasing trends. He's holding the line on craft, quality, and supply chain integrity in an industry that's mostly given up on all three.

In this conversation, Andrew and Menno talk about how the denim business lost its way. How boardrooms started dictating what quality should cost instead of asking what quality should be. How brands squeezed every dime out of their suppliers and then acted surprised when the product looked miserable. And why Menno finally decided to start his own brand after a decade of success, just so he could make jeans he was proud to stand behind.

Menno traces his path from finding his father's old 1970s denim in a closet to working in Dutch retail under entrepreneurs who believed risk and responsibility belonged on the shop floor. He talks about the slow collapse of large online retailers, the resilience of independents who still care about fit and service, and why he thinks there's a window of opportunity right now for stores that survived the last decade of chaos.

At the center of it all is his belief that value comes from honesty. With suppliers, with customers, with yourself. If the supply chain can't be defended, the garment isn't worth making. And if a brand can't protect its makers, it can't claim a heritage.

A good conversation about what it takes to build something that lasts, told by someone who still treats denim as a craft, not a commodity.

Thank you to our sponsor Inside Denim.

Menno van Meurs
Founder, Tenue de Nîmes & Tenue
Tenue de Nîmes, Tenue, Instagram

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In April, the White House called it Liberation Day. The apparel industry called it panic.

Andrew breaks down what happened when decades of predictable duty rates got wiped out overnight. Global jeans suppliers were hit with numbers no one saw coming. Vietnam at 46%, Cambodia at 49%, Bangladesh at 37%. Orders paused. Panic spread. The rollout felt like a list of naughty countries with penalties posted on a scoreboard.

But the story didn't end there. A group of small importers challenged the tariffs in court, and their case reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices, conservative and liberal, all seemed skeptical of the government's argument. Chief Justice Roberts pointed out that the emergency powers law doesn't mention tariffs once. Justice Gorsuch asked if this theory would let a president declare war alone. The Solicitor General's defense didn't persuade anyone.

If the Court strikes down the tariffs, the government could owe importers hundreds of billions and Congress would have to rebuild U.S. trade authority from the ground up. Meanwhile, the big brands who stayed silent, Levi's, Walmart, Gap, American Eagle, they'd get their money back. A silent windfall. The customers who already paid higher prices? They'll never see that money again.

This episode traces the legal fight, the political stakes, and what a reversal would mean for everyone caught in the middle.

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