Wax London is putting a 42 percent premium on its first ‘Made in Japan’ jean.
The contemporary British menswear brand’s dark-rinse Felix, cut from selvedge denim woven by Japan’s Kaihara Denim and manufactured by Johnbull, retails for 220 pounds ($296).
That compares with Wax’s other selvedge Felix jeans, which retail for 155 pounds ($209), and 120 pounds ($162) for conventional versions of the relaxed straight-leg style.
The Fall 2026 collection launch marks Wax’s first use of Japanese selvedge denim and its first jean made in the country. It also places two distinct parts of the Japanese denim supply chain on the label: Kaihara produced the fabric in Fukuyama, Hiroshima, while Johnbull made the finished garment in Kojima, Kurashiki.
Kojima is widely regarded as the birthplace of Japan’s domestic jeans industry. Kaihara, meanwhile, traces its textile-making history to 1893 and has grown from producing indigo-dyed kasuri fabric into a vertically integrated denim manufacturer.
The Japanese Felix uses a 13.75-ounce cotton fabric finished with a simple rinse wash. Wax said the treatment was intended to preserve the character of the indigo denim, allowing it to soften, fade and develop...