There’s a temporal immunity some threads can afford. Stonewash, those decidedly abrasive, ever-raffish jeans we all replenish calendrically, can spring for a hall pass on the frivolities of trend, remaining a permanent fixture in our shopping carts. However, it should be noted that they weren’t always the unofficial uniform of off-duty luxe. Over yonder in the distant Lycra-loaded 80s, the opportunities to catch sight of this icon were few and far between—that is, unless you were positioned at just the right coordinates, say, somewhere along the Riviera. Stonewash was not just a craft but a local custom donned by those in the know. And it might have stayed that way were it not for four French Moroccan brothers who followed the glittering green light of the American dream across the Atlantic. Along with those dreams, they brought from Marseille to LA the faded glory of a new mode of denim that would soon morph into a global sensation, reaching a whopping production of 500,000 pairs of denim a week in 1985. Those brothers were the Marciano brothers, and that global sensation was GUESS’ stonewash jeans.
Though the perms have smoothened, and waistlines have lowered since, that very same pioneering spirit endures. Now, at the helm of the denim dynasty as GUESS’ Chief New Business Development Officer, Nicolai Marciano diverges from the twill-weave road as he forges a new path toward innovation. Hot on the heels of its debut at the January 2024 edition of Pitti Uomo, GUESS AIRWASH™, a sustainable technique to craft stonewash-esque jeans, suggests that pumice and water are now passé. The new order of denim opts for lasers that bring a novel edge to stonewash—minus the messy water waste. The breakthrough technology is the brainchild of a decades-long collaboration with the Spanish sustainable textile firm Jeanología that gives a futuristic edge to a beloved classic. “In the past, we were pushing product innovation to celebrate a category in a way that it never had been done before,” Marciano shares. “Today, we’re looking at celebrating that category and approaching it with an industry-redefining process that should change the landscape for all brands in the foreseeable future.”
Other players in the denim game suggest with their designs that the path forward can be found in the seams of jeans with exaggerated silhouettes and zany accents. Marciano says otherwise. When asked what denim will look like in the next 40 years, he predicts it will likely resemble the last 40 years because of GUESS’ timeless vision, which he dubs a “forever aesthetic.”
Trends, while glimmering with the sheen of novelty, are cyclical, falling prey to short fervors that burn bright and long periods of hope in the darkness, awaiting the day that they’ll once again fall into the favor of fashion. When Marciano thinks of the future, he’s not thinking merely within arm’s reach. If longevity, where style is concerned, calls for something that will endure fleeting fads, then it’s safe to say protecting that signature look that has championed decades worth of fame through conscious technology is a wise step moving forward.
“GUESS was the disruptor. GUESS was the innovator. GUESS is who came in and said, we’re going to do denim in a completely different way,” Marciano notes of the brand’s meteoric rise in the ‘80s. And though disruption today has shifted from aesthetics to technology, the same can be said for GUESS 40 years later. As GUESS AIRWASH™ arises as the vessel on which it will dash off into the denim evolution, it seems GUESS might just have a swift and speedy ride ahead.
Following the opening of GUESS JEANS Amsterdam and “The Next 40 Years of Denim” exhibit launch in Amsterdam, Chief New Business Development Officer Nicolai Marciano shares more on the groundbreaking technology powering the denim houses’ next chapter.
Nicolai Marciano: We can't talk about GUESS AIRWASH™ without stonewash. Stonewash is the process that GUESS pioneered in the early ‘80s. GUESS was one of the first companies to mass produce and popularize the process. At the time, it changed the landscape of denim as a textile and as a medium. It opened the perspective on how to use this fabric in so many different ways beyond what it was used for in its entire existence.
Highsnobiety: How would you say pioneering stonewash set the tone for GUESS’ future and legacy?
NM: GUESS was the disruptor. GUESS was the innovator. GUESS is the brand that came in and said, “We're going to do denim in a completely different way.” And they just ran with it. It was constant product innovation, and it changed the [trajectory] of denim making it this fashionable textile. It evolved from stonewashed to acid wash, then it went from acid wash to over-dye. After that, it was mixed media—it was all about mixing different fabrics with denim and washing them together. I think the throughline of all of those eras, from then to now with GUESS AIRWASH™, is this mentality of innovation and pushing denim forward. That was something I think my dad and my uncles were relentless with. They just kept pushing, kept innovating, kept doing things differently because they always had this mentality. They’ve even said in past interviews that “If you keep creating and keep pushing, people can't knock you off.” That [sentiment] is representative of our archive, and we have this deeply vast eclectic archive.
HS: What’s it like having decades of innovation at your disposal?
NM: When I look at the archive, the ideas are plentiful. There's so much going on, and I think it's also been a beautiful reference and experience for me to utilize because there's such a variety. There are a lot of heritage brands like us who have big archives that I'd say are more narrow or a little bit more focused—which, by the way, I have the utmost respect for those types of brands—but GUESS is different. The GUESS archive is different in the sense of the various chapters that we've had, the different moments that we've had, and the different storytelling that we've had. GUESS was this American dream through the eyes of four French Moroccan brothers from Marseille. So it's a very interesting learning experience for me. I was going through our archives and reading a lot of these old articles, editorials, and interviews. I saw something about how, in the late ‘70s, the denim business was on a steady decline. When GUESS came in and dropped the stonewash, it was this explosion. It revitalized the industry. L.A. became a denim mecca for the world, but it wasn't before.
HS: What was the effect of that “explosion” in terms of manufacturing stonewash? Also, obviously, you’re one of the minds behind GUESS AIRWASH™—so, I’m wondering about your experience witnessing the production of stonewash growing up and how that led us to this moment.
NM: So, the process of stonewash is essentially washing garments—denim specifically—with the use of pumice stones, and then a variety of other kinds of components give you the ability to have many different outcomes of washes. It was all a very analog process in terms of the temperature of the water, time spent in the drum, different kinds of processes, chemicals, treatments, etc. There are 1000 ways to do it, and I think that’s the most beautiful part about it, which is my first impression and experience of this industry as a whole. I started working at the company when I was 17. On my first day, my dad had me go do the denim laundry, and that was my first GUESS experience at the company.
If GUESS hadn't done stonewash the way it was done, it probably wouldn't have had the impact that it had. What I mean by that is, stonewash was something that was super artisanal and that was happening in the South of France and Italy—but not at scale. My dad and his brothers, when they came to L.A., they basically went to the garment dye houses and said, “Hey, you’ve got to put these pumice stones in this machine, and we're going to wash this denim this way.” Everybody looked at them like they were out of their mind. They went to several different washhouses. Finally, one took the chance and said, “Hey, all right, we'll do it. But you're liable for the machines. If you pay for the machines, we'll do it for you. That was in 1980, I believe. Right before GUESS had launched in Los Angeles. By 1985 GUESS was producing 500,000 pairs of jeans a week in L.A. So, GUESS transformed the apparel industry of Los Angeles into becoming a denim production hub. This all led to GUESS’ meteoric rise, the company went from zero to $250 million in revenue in 1985.
HS: That’s definitely a meteoric rise. 500,000 pairs of denim produced on a weekly basis? That has to be a record. I think all of those anecdotes provide beautiful context around how we are here today and how GUESS revolutionized the denim industry.
NM: Yeah! So, that's a little bit of the backstory and the context around it. That’s the process we've been doing for the last 40 years. Our contribution to denim became the industry standard. But now leading into GUESS AIRWASH™, we're really turning the corner on a different chapter. Again, the throughline is product innovation. What product innovation meant in the ‘80s was discovering a new craft, a new way of doing something, and a new perspective for denim. It was about really opening up the eyes of creatives and designers to say, “Wow, this is a fabric I can do so much with.” That's what product innovation meant at that time. I think that today, 40 years later, people have stonewashed left, right, up, down, and center over this period of time. We've done it all at this point. But technology is playing an innovative role, which is just taking us even further. In the past, it was more of an analog technique: water, stones, time, chemical components, and that was a more simple equation. Well, it’s complicated but simple compared to what we're doing now with GUESS AIRWASH™. This new [innovation] is at the intersection of software and technology and nanotechnology. How is that furthering the garment? For us, I think from a product standpoint, a lot of people ask me, “What do you think the evolution of denim is? What is denim going to look like in 40 years?” And for me, it's the aesthetic that we created in the ‘80s and ‘90s—it’s a forever aesthetic. That is a timeless approach, timeless design, timeless feel, timeless touch. But now, the innovation is through what makes it.
HS: Walk us through some of the aspects or elements of the innovative technology that fuels GUESS AIRWASH™.
NM: For starters, the denim still has the same feel, and still looks the same, but what is it comprised of now? That’s where GUESS AIRWASH™ comes in. GUESS AIRWASH™ is our answer to the question: how do we maintain the heritage, legacy, and stamp on that iconic era of denim from the past? But in a more conscious way? How can we push past product innovation to celebrate a category in a way that has never been done?
Today, we're looking at celebrating that category and approaching it with an industry-redefining process that should change the landscape for all brands in the foreseeable future. That's why we really like to sit in between the two worlds where heritage meets innovation. That is the zone that GUESS JEANS plays in.
HS: Let’s dive in on the more technical process of GUESS AIRWASH™.
NM: We’ve been developing GUESS AIRWASH™ for the last two years with our longtime partners at Jeanologia. They’re this [sustainable textile solutions firm] in Spain, and they’ve cracked the code. We've been able to recreate the classic stonewash, that type of consistency, all while having a huge reduction in water usage. I think the biggest difference with GUESS AIRWASH™ is the character, and the marbling that we're able to achieve on a consistent basis is unique for the process that it has, for example, the ozone machine. Ozone is a key component in the new GUESS AIRWASH™ process, but the ozone previously was never able to create that real stonewash effect or look; it's only been able to lift color. Lifting color isn't the end all for creating an amazing stonewashed pair of jeans. But Jeanologia’s most recent development is what's turned into GUESS AIRWASH™. It’s really about nanotechnology and these air bubbles, and that's why it's called GUESS AIRWASH™. The technology delivers this solution in the form of almost a condensation, which is able to create that marbling effect. Obviously, a huge component of GUESS AIRWASH™ is water reduction, but we’ve also completely eliminated the use of stone. There’s also this energy-saving component. A light-wash pair of stonewashed jeans could take three hours to process. Now, that same process takes about 35 minutes with GUESS AIRWASH™.
What’s really special about this new approach and technology is that a pair of GUESS AIRWASH™ jeans is actually far more durable than a previous pair of stonewashed jeans because there's no abrasion in the process. There are no stones beating up the garment for hours. Of course, that's part of the craft of stone washing, but that affects the integrity of the fabric and the construction. Over time, the denim will wear and rip because of what it endured in its creation. Now, with GUESS AIRWASH™ it's all topical. Meaning that a light-wash pair of jeans by GUESS AIRWASH™ has almost the same structural integrity of rinsed or even raw denim. That in itself is a huge breakthrough because now we're delivering a much more sustainable garment.
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