Denim Gets Darker and Deeper for Fall/Winter 25-26
Denim is growing darker and deeper for Fall/Winter 2025-2026.
After seasons filled with ecru denim and bold Y2K colors, mills are responding to quiet luxury trends and consumers’ demand for versatile products by focusing on rich shades of black and deep indigos inspired by midnight skies.
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Pops of green, gray and brown are the season’s fashion colors.
Cone Denim offers a F/W 25-26 capsule of shades and constructions with distinct visual differences. “Our Smoked Hues capsule pulls inspiration from the ’90s and ’00s era and includes eye-catching low-dip shades, moody indigos, and dusty blues,” said Pierette Scavuzzo, Cone Denim design director. “This shade concept tells a story of contrast and adds freshness to an indigo range, creating an alluring color story that’s impossible to ignore.”
The mill is also launching a new collection of forest green selvedge fabrics that uses Colourizd, a technology that injects pigment onto smooth yarns to create a visual yarn slub. The dye technique results in significant reductions in resources including 98 percent water savings, 50 percent reduction in energy during the dyeing process, zero wastewater discharge, and 73 percent reduction in carbon footprint compared to reactive dye processes.
The fabrics will be part of the Cone Community Collection, Cone’s line of fabrics that are designed to support and raise awareness for worthy causes. The new collection will support forest conservation.
Soorty developed Swedish Blue, a rich indigo hue, with Italian chemical company Bozzetto. The color employs a Bluesign-approved, bio-based alternative to harmful chemicals, safeguarding the environment without compromising product quality and performance.
Swedish Blue is part of Soorty’s effort with Bozzetto to develop a salt-free dyeing solution that is free of chemicals, applicable for both indigo and sulfur dyeing, said Noman Nadir Khan, Soorty’s VP of research and development, denim.
“The green process we engineered together introduces a bio-based alternative that replaces sodium hydrosulfite and sodium sulfide, it is completely residue-free and hence has no impact on wastewater treatment,” he said.
Soorty is also experimenting with non-indigo colors. The vertical manufacturer adds Fern Black, a green-cast black shade featuring Archroma’s Evolution Black, and a new brown denim that achieves unique vintage aesthetics in the laundry, its F/W 25-26 lineup. For dark, deep and inky stories, Soorty offers Hello Darkness, a collection that spans intense black blacks to rich indigo modals and bold overdyes.
With Gem-set, AGI Denim offers customizable lustrous coated denim. “For maximum versatility, the fabric is finished in AGI Denim’s state-of-the-art mill with a jewel-like coating and can be garment-dyed to unique specifications in laundry following any color standard,” said Ali Tekin, AGI’s R&D director. “This technology offers designers an easy and scalable way to showcase their distinct vision.”
The vertical mill also has Vintage Black, a new quick-fading black that Tekin said “chips off beautifully in the laundry finishing process.
Crescent Bahuman Limited (CBL) is introducing Winter Solstice, a collection that mimics moody mid-winter blue skies.
The color range spans inky and saturated blues to rich carbon blacks, with each garment showcasing a wide spectrum of wash-down possibilities and tones, said Imran Tanveer, CBL assistant VP of research and development. He added the mill uses clean dye techniques that minimizes water and chemical usage to achieve the colors.
For more classic indigo shades, CBL offers dye solutions that use 100 percent hydrosulfite-free methods. The dyes achieve brighter wash downs compared to conventional denim fabrications.
“This reflects our commitment to responsible denim manufacturing and supports our long-term sustainability goals by conserving chemicals and energy and reducing wastewater treatment needs, ultimately lowering our carbon footprint,” Tanveer said.
In addition to offering new vintage-inspired fabrics with green casts, Siddiqsons Limited is introducing Eco Black, a shade that uses 30 percent fewer chemicals without compromising on the quality or intensity of the color.
“Advance Denim is continuing to push the boundaries of traditional indigo shades to meet our customers’ needs for more complex dark rich shades,” said Mark Ix, Advance Denim’s director of North American marketing.
Advance had developed inky blue-black shades on vintage Morrison dye ranges at its mill in Nah Trang, Vietnam. Ix said the shades offer exceptional flexibility from dark rich saturated rinse shades that highlight clean dark washes to light washes that show a pop of indigo mixed with midnight highlights.
Artistic Milliners is focused on deeper, authentic black denim washes. Baber Sultan, director of product development and research for Artistic Milliners, said partnerships with Archroma and Nature Coatings have allowed the manufacturer to make major strides.
“Archroma’s Diresul Evolution Black dyestuff is an absolute game-changer in terms of sustainability and superior color, minimizing both resource usage and worker exposure to harmful chemicals,” he said. “And Nature Coatings’ BioBlack TX, a completely carbon-negative black pigment made from wood waste, gives us amazing results as an alternative to traditional petroleum-based dyes.”
DNM Denim offers new dark indigo tones for F/W 25-26. Pure Indigo Midnight Blue, defined by its intense color tone, is an ideal color for use in a raw appearance. Zuhal Karaçayır, DNM Denim’s assistant marketing manager, said the color offers a flawless, shiny and clean color appearance.
A second color, Beyond Blue, “sets a new standard for depth and originality in dark washes with its sulfur top indigo tone,” she said. The color is suitable for clean vintage looks and weathered denim aesthetics in lighter washes.
Gray is also an important color for DNM Denim this season. The Egyptian mill introduces two new options, Granite Gray, a dark and sophisticated shade, and Basalt Gray, which can be washed down to achieve a washed look.
Bossa is using two resource-saving processes this season. Dyeboss is an environmentally friendly production technique that eliminates the use of hydrosulfite. Due to a special reducing agent, the dyeing process generates less salt. This results in more regular dyeing, higher oxygen stability and less by-products. It is also odorless and dust-free.
The Turkish mill’s SaveDyeBoss process is the water, energy and effluent-saving version of the DyeBoss. It combines Dystar’s Eco Advance dyeing method with the Dyeboss process.
Responsibility is baked into Raymond UCO Denim’s manufacturing process, according to Sudhir Deorukhkar, Raymond UCO Denim general manager. He added that the Indian mill was one of the first to have a completely biological effluent treatment plant, which allows the company to recycle about 97 percent of the water used in production.
“We see sustainability as a path, not a destination, and we try to reflect that in every product we make. We are showcasing few articles dyed with natural indigo which has traditionally been extracted from dried leaves from the Indigofera tinctoria plant,” Deorukhkar said.
