Denim is currently in a vintage revival period, favoring heritage styles and fits associated with eras like the ‘90s. While these jeans might look like those from earlier decades, consumer preferences are pushing product developers to create authentic-looking denim that also offers stretch.
Heritage denim often featured rigid constructions that would not give. After living through the ultra-stretch skinny jean era, consumers accustomed to stretch say they find fully rigid jeans too restrictive. Meanwhile, popular 99-1 comfort stretch blends — combining 1 percent spandex with 99 percent natural materials like cotton — provide some flexibility, but the low stretch content falls short on recovery, the measure of how well fibers bounce back into position after expanding. This results in bagged-out jeans in areas like the knees.
Recognizing a need for a heritage-style denim stretch solution, The Lycra Company developed Lycra® VintageFX fiber. Introduced in 2025 and commercially launched in 2026, the fiber features a dual core consisting of conventional Lycra® fiber and Lycra® VintageFX fiber, which is wrapped with cotton fiber. The Lycra® VintageFX fiber shrinks under heat during finish...