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Google “olive oil” and “jeans” and many results address stain removal.
But Wrangler has generated buzz in Europe this month with women’s jeans deliberately infused with the popular vegetable oil.
Its Denim Spa range includes jeans with an olive extract finish “for moisturization”. There’s also an aloe vera model “to soothe sensitive skin” and an “anti-cellulite” one called Smooth Legs.
Squalene “penetrates skin”
Asked for details of the olive extract jeans, Wrangler told Olive Oil Times they leave skin “especially toned thanks to wonder hydrator squalene”. The olive oil extract can “penetrate the upper layers of the skin especially well as it is nearly identical in structure to a lipid found naturally in skin,” the American company said.
“The cosmetic ingredients that are added to the jeans are protected in microcapsules that are a thousand times smaller than the tip of a needle.”
After spraying on the microcapsules, the jeans are dried in an oven so the microcapsules bind to the fibres, “giving them a good resistance to washing.” The olive extract treatment is said to last 6 – 8 washes.
The tight design of the skinny-fit jeans means “the friction of the denim against the skin progressively breaks open the microcapsules, releasing their content onto the skin,” Wrangler claims.
Cosmetic textiles not new
The range was launched in Europe with a campaign featuring Lizzy Jagger, daughter of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, and the jeans are priced at about £85 or $150 on UK-based online fashion retailer Asos.
But Fashion Mag says Wrangler was not the first to offer “cosmetic textile” pants. Brands such as Salsa brought out an anti-cellulite version in 2004, Portuguese brand Tiffosi followed suit, and Gsus Sindustries sells jeans “dipped in” aloe vera, it said.
Olive Oil Times reported last November on a leading international textile company seeking technology to coat or pad its fabrics with substances such as olive oil, aloe vera, argan oil and negative ions in order to differentiate “via affordable products with well-being and anti-stress benefits.”