The steep price of blue jeans

From cowboys to presidents, supermodels to gardeners, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t own a pair of blue jeans. Denim, a heavy-duty cotton twill, is one of our most enduring and versatile wardrobe staples. It can be deep indigo or faded blue, high-rise or low-rise, made into dresses, shirts, skirts and even tuxedos (although I’d add that just because it can, that doesn’t mean it should). But with more than one billion pairs sold every year, the fabric also comes with a heavy environmental cost.

Let’s imagine your favourite jeans. They started off in a field of cotton – or more likely, hundreds of different fields – probably in India, China, the United States, Brazil or Pakistan, the five countries that make up 75 per cent of global cotton production.