Developed in various iterations over many years, Tender Cross Weave denims are woven in England on unbleached cotton warps. Denim is normally woven with an indigo warp and an ecru weft, but Cross Weave denim reverses this- the weft is Japanese rope-dyed ringspun 25 dips indigo cotton yarn. To ensure a deep colour, extra picks (weft lines) are pushed in, resulting in interesting characteristics, such as the dimpling in the surface of 12oz Cross Weave. Despite this, Cross Weave denim shows more ecru yarn and textural variation than a standard denim. The appearance of the original 10oz fabric was inspired by a pair of vintage British Rail worker’s uniform trousers, cut from a lightweight denim with a very distinct twill line. With wear the deep indigo from the weft yarn will lift and transfer onto the ecru warp, resulting in fades in the indigo and reverse staining onto the raw cotton.
Cross Weave denim garments are cut at right angles to the fabric (whereas they are usually cut along the roll), so the indigo weft runs up and down the leg, as a warp normally would. The cloth is woven in a left hand twill, but cut as jeans it appears to run to the right. Consequently, although this is a left hand twill fabric the jeans skew clockwise, as a right hand twill normally would.
A ‘doppler’ version of the extra heavy 19oz denim fabric has graded weft stripes of Ryeland wool woven in with the indigo cotton.
