Nobody has heard a word from Amoskeag for the best part of a century. What was once the largest cotton textile plant in the world, and the supplier of denim for Levi’s first pair of 501 jeans, has fallen into obscurity since its New Hampshire factory shuttered in 1935. You’d have to be a real denim nerd to be familiar with the name Amoskeag. Or, maybe, you just have your ear to the ground of Japanese menswear. 

On almost the other side of the world, in Japan, Amoskeag is back, but now its name is written in all-caps. Also, it is a high-end menswear line. 

The all-new AMOSKEAG has no direct relation with the American mill that made modern jeans a reality. This is a separate venture “in recognition of Amoskeag,” according to the brand, which is backed by Bug Industry, a company more famous for producing Fill The Bill, a line of Japan-made casualwear.

It may be Amoskeag in name only, but this AMOSKEAG does aim to recreate the workmanship of its long-shuttered namesake. 

This isn’t the first time someone has tried such a feat. In the early 2000s, a New York store called Amoskeag XX had a similar mission statement. But that’s also long since shuttered and Fill The Bill’s new line occupies the Amosekag-worship niche.

Amoskeag’s primitive production methods, where the cotton denim wasn’t pre-shrunk or “skewed” to prevent twisting, meant the denim had a “unique flavor that is hard to describe and is not found in modern times,” according to a translation of the brand’s Japanese website. This rustic feel inspired AMOSKEAG.

The label’s debut collection, Spring/Summer 2026, releases February 21 at boutiques like 1LDK and Dice&Dice, consisting of 12 new items produced using 11 original fabrics. A selvedge indigo chambray, bleached and overdyed for purposefully inconsistent coloration, is utilized for a generous work shirt while a high-density cotton-linen canvas forms a boxy chore coat with matching wide-leg pants.

It’s a concise collection of neutral menswear staples, a tasteful if inconspicuous capsule wardrobe. However, the treatment and finishing techniques are noticeably more advanced than anything the OG Amoskeag produced during its lifespan of 1831 to 1935. 

That’s no oversight, though. AMOSKEAG calls itself a “new expression” of the mill that made Levi’s earliest jeans, which means new technology is used where deemed necessary. It’s what you could imagine Amoskeag making if it had survived till today. And relocated to Japan. 

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