DIY Culture Has Had Significant Impact on the World of Denim

As the denim community of manufacturers, designers and buyers make a rush for Milan to attend the Denim Première Vision edition, texfash speaks to Julieta Mercerat (Denim Expert – Première Vision) and Fabio Adami Dalla Val (Show Manager – Denim Première Vision) to get a feel of what it is like on the ground.

Subir Ghosh

25 November 2024

5 minutes

Long Story, Cut Short

The ‘Do It Yourself’ movement has had a particularly significant impact on the denim world, a sector closely tied to craftsmanship and manual processes.
Denim is more than a material—it’s a medium for storytelling, and the Denim Fashion District is where these stories come to life.
Work has begun on the 2026 Fashion District project that is expected to expand in a new unpredictable dimension.

Conceived as a dedicated space to highlight collaborations between brands and exhibitors connecting the most innovative and inspiring fashion brands working with denim, the Denim Fashion District has evolved into a vibrant showcase where creativity, craftsmanship, and cutting-edge technology converge.

Denim Talk Conceived as a dedicated space to highlight collaborations between brands and exhibitors connecting the most innovative and inspiring fashion brands working with denim, the Denim Fashion District has evolved into a vibrant showcase where creativity, craftsmanship, and cutting-edge technology converge. Denim Première Vision

Denim Première Vision events are an open window to the world of denim, its trends, market, culture and, of course, the die-hard community that makes denim tick.

Launched in 2007, Denim Première Vision has established itself as a driving, unifying and pioneering event for the international denim community. Each season, the event has been reinventing itself to better meet the needs of a demanding and versatile industry and the expectations of brands and consumers in constant search of exclusivity and inspiration.

Since 2018, Denim Première Vision has been travelling across Europe, and the community regularly sets up shop in a new city. As things stand, Paris, Milan, London and Berlin have all been visited. What's next? You write it!

texfash: Denim PV is about trends. But things are different now than what it was when Denim PV started. Every day social media gets bigger, and the world itself shrinks. What impact has it had on the process of trend forecasting? Please elaborate so as to give us a sense of the trends therein.
Julieta Mercerat: Social media has impacted denim trends, as well as various other sectors, from multiple perspectives. Initially, we transitioned from having micro-trends or directional lines lasting a single season (six months) to witnessing the emergence of numerous trend bubbles or molecules originating from different sectors or social groups. Together, they create a network of interconnected or parallel trends.

As denim is such a democratic and popular fabric, we see trends emerging both from individuals and major brands. In this context, the ‘Do It Yourself’ movement has had a particularly significant impact on the denim world, a sector closely tied to craftsmanship and manual processes.

Since participants come from all over the world, how proactive do you think denim players have become in the last few years on sustainability?
Julieta Mercerat: The denim industry possesses a remarkable ability to reactively absorb new trends. Furthermore, there is a strong sense of community or niche within the sector, where collaborations occur organically. This dynamic enables the advancement of new initiatives and supports emerging innovations dedicated to sustainability.

What about your process when you choose your exhibitors for the various shows. How has it kept itself in sync with the wildly changing times? Do your criteria become more stringent with every edition?
Fabio Adami Dalla Val: Like each show of GL Events Fashion Division, Denim Première Vision is a selective show. To become exhibitor, newcomers have to submit an application and be approved by the PV Paris selection committee.

All the Denim Première Vision exhibitors must match quality, creativity, technical know-how, performance and reputation criteria. Each application is studied by a Selection Committee, which validates new exhibitors on its own.

This requirement guarantees the exceptional offer we provide to international buyers, and it participates in our success and renown towards textile and fashion professionals. Criteria are regularly updated according to the market requirements and evolution with a particular attention to the responsible production. This is reflected also in our “A Better Way” programme.

Small- and medium-sized innovators find it next to impossible to participate in such high-fee events. But, they need to be brought to the forefront. Do you look forward to innovators from this segment and how do you encourage them? After all, every participant, in some way or the other, would be displaying some innovations.
Fabio Adami Dalla Val: We have specific programmes and opportunities for innovative and smart companies like in other shows like PV. We dedicate to them our efforts to create unique and tailor-made opportunities. Even in this case we go through a dedicated selection process that considers their specific type of business.

And last: Denim Fashion District. It was launched in May 2022. How has it evolved? How do you position this feature in the context of the event itself. After all, everything is denim, and everything is fashion. How are participants chosen or shortlisted for this?
Fabio Adami Dalla Val: The Denim Fashion District, launched in May 2022, has grown significantly both in scope and impact. Initially conceived as a dedicated space to highlight collaborations between brands and exhibitors connecting the most innovative and inspiring fashion brands working with denim, it has evolved into a vibrant showcase where creativity, craftsmanship, and cutting-edge technology converge.

Julieta Mercerat

Denim Expert

Première Vision

The denim industry possesses a remarkable ability to reactively absorb new trends. Furthermore, there is a strong sense of community or niche within the sector, where collaborations occur organically. This dynamic enables the advancement of new initiatives and supports emerging innovations dedicated to sustainability.

In the context of Denim Première Vision, the Denim Fashion District serves as a curated highlight within the larger event, offering a unique lens into how denim transcends its traditional boundaries to influence contemporary fashion. It’s a space that bridges the gap between supply chain innovation and creative expression, allowing brands to connect directly with professionals seeking inspiration and collaboration. We are also working to attract buyers, retailers and other partners to this one-of-a-kind showroom.

When it comes to selecting participants, we focus on brands that embody creative vision, sustainability, empathy. The selection process involves a panel of experts who actively scout for brands aligning with the spirit of innovation and excellence we strive to showcase.

We believe denim is more than a material—it’s a medium for storytelling, and the Denim Fashion District is where these stories come to life.

Your website says that the Denim Fashion District participants "will be presenting capsule collections created in partnership with the show's exhibitors." Could you tell us how the partnership works? What role does Premiere Vision play, and what task is cut out for the designers and brands? How many seasons ahead do you start working on an edition of DFD?
Fabio Adami Dalla Val: The Denim Fashion District is a space where collaboration takes centrestage. The capsule collections presented are also the result of synergistic partnerships between brands and the exhibitors at Denim Première Vision. Our role is to curate and facilitate connections between innovative brands and leading denim suppliers, from mills to accessory makers. We connect and we support the collaborations giving the chance to the brand to work with new materials before the market can see it. The exhibitors have the opportunity to see different interpretations of their products with a creative approach and a business-oriented model too.

We believe in long-term relations and few brands are almost resident partners of the Fashion District like the collaboration with OPAA for the creation of the concept/space while the research of new possible friends never stops. We are already working on the 2026 Fashion District project that will expand in a new unpredictable dimension.

Denim Première Vision is about bridging the gap between creativity and industry innovation, and the Denim Fashion District is a prime example of this mission in action.

Fabio Adami Dalla Val

Show Manager

Denim Première Vision

All the Denim Première Vision exhibitors must match quality, creativity, technical know-how, performance and reputation criteria. Each application is studied by a Selection Committee, which validates new exhibitors on its own.