Fashion

Gluejeans by G and N Fashion Fugitive

Published 30 months ago

"Jeans as we know them just changed."

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• Text by Mo Veld

Dutch conceptual designers Gerrit Uittenbogaard and Natasja Martens have been operating under the name G+N Fashion Fugitive since 1998 and choose the Internet as the main platform for their multi discipline fashion related projects.

On July 19th 2008, at the opening of Amsterdam International Fashion Week, G+N launched their new jeans label 'Gluejeans' in one of the former prostitution houses in Amsterdam’s famous red light district that are now occupied by local fashion designers.  Find out more about the temporary Red Light Fashion project here.

Gluejeans are a radical new approach to denim. They are not stitched, but glued at all the seams. The ultra-strong glue comes in different colours like red or black, creating a distinctive interplay of lines. Each pair is hand-made in the Netherlands, and can only be ordered at the G+N red light district fitting room on Oudezijds Achterburgwal 66 in Amsterdam.

Dazed Digital: How did you come to the idea to glue jeans?
Gerrit Uittenbogaard and Natasja Martens : As we are always looking for different ways of dealing with fashion, doing jeans was a big challenge for us. Trying to design and produce a distinctive jean turned out to be a very difficult process. Disappointed by the traditional ways of producing jeans we looked for an alternative construction.

DD: How did you pull it off, technically?
G+N: We had to find the right glue and the right denim giving our jeans at least the strength of traditional jeans and of course the look we had in mind for our new jeans.
In other industries this glue is quite common†but a testing period of two years was necessary to make sure this glue used on denim could stand wearing and washing. And it did! That's the point from were the idea glued jeans became the product ’Gluejeans’. We developed various models and our own production facilities as such did not exist. These jeans are really handmade so we can do only about 300 pairs this year. For now the ‘Gluejeans’ are only available in our 'fitting room' in the red light district. They will be available in selected stores later this year. They retail at EUR 420.

DD: What will be your next project?
G+N: We will use the jeans as an icon, presenting a range of products in the future.