Nudie Jeans has made a significant statement in their 6 years of existence that extends beyond the world of denim quite unlike other brands. This is because, as Byron from Nudie told us during an interview at Bread & Butter, to them denim jeans have the same soul and attitude as music. This passion for denim from the brand has created a near cult-like following among musicians who simply love their Nudies. We see them worn on many top indie artists in LA, New York, and London. And of course they’re big in Stockholm, Sweden, where the brand has opened up its first flagship store in their mother country (with plans to open another in Tokyo in August).
However Nudie is also popular with passionate people interested in great style, originality, organics, and various causes—all of which Nudie embodies particularly with their contributions and awareness campaigns to human rights issues through Amnesty International. When we caught up with Nudie at Bread & Butter Barcelona, their booth—which was not in the Denim hall but more upscale Superior area for premium brands--was carefully guarded by various reps and managers, yet open to people curious enough to ask questions about what’s in store next for the brand. That’s when they invited us to their Human Rights Gallery to benefit Amnesty International at the beautiful location of the Monasterio De Sant Miquel in the village of Poble Espanyol in Barcelona.
The event showcased the artwork of 30 different people chosen by Nudie for their contributions to music, art, design, and photography. Each artist was given the task of creating a design or message that best represented an interpretation of a specific human rights declaration in their view. Each interpretation was then created on a Nudie T-shirt and hung in the gallery. A percentage of T-shirts sales (11 Euros each) will go to Amnesty International. The T-shirts themselves are made from 100% organically cultivated cotton and manufactured in Portugal.
It’s not unusual for Nudie to produce such high quality T-shirts towards their cause: Nudie Jeans are also pushing the curve for producing organic cotton and blended yard in their denim, and are made with the best qualities from Italy and Japan including characteristics such as lightweight to heavyweight, crosshatch, neps and streaky constructions in broken twill, left hand or selvaged denim. All Nudie jeans are made in Italy with each pair taking a lot of work by hand to complete.
At the Amnesty International Human Right Gallery in Barcelona, the crowd soaked in the amazing view of Barcelona at sunset from the hilltop gallery, and talked to the various artists including Ote Ferdinand Duner from Sweden, Anton Corbijn from the Netherlands, We Are Wolves from the U.S, and Shogo Kawasaki from Japan. People checked out the details of each T-shirt in the gallery and read why each artist was inspired by a various human rights declaration. And tucked into the neck of each T-shirt is the web address www.amnesty.se/humanrights where owners of a T can read the 30 Declarations of Human Rights in full or sign up to become a member.
The Nudie benefit extends beyond the exhibition as T-shirts start go on sale spreading the message worldwide. In addition, Nudie’s created an online gallery with detailed information about each contributing artists and their thoughts on various human rights issues at www.nudiejeans.com/humanrights.
In a trade show that’s dedicated mostly to premium denim and fashion, the Nudie Human Rights Gallery brought out another side of the passion of fashion that shows such energy can also be directed towards making a difference.
