Reco Jeans is proud to announce that its now featured on My Denim Devil, and a part of there 50% off Mothers Day Sale. Save money, help the planet, and get mom something stylish she can use all year long. Simply use the code MOM2013 at checkout. Stylish, upcycled and eco-friendly jeans.

On Monday October 22nd Winner of America’s Next Top Model, Season 6, Dani Evans, and Ford Model/ Founder of Art in Motion, Monica Watkins, hosted a concert at The Gramercy Theatre in New York City, to benefit the children of Haiti via The Love and Serve Haiti Music Project; a collaboration between HAUP (Haitian Americans United for Progress), Pou Soley Leve, Kaya Luxury Events, Art in Motion, Dani Evans, Black Book Management, Free IntegraOted Media and Avery James Designs. A private cocktail reception featured sponsors RECO JEANS NEW YORK and Avery James Designs which kicked-off the concert from 6:30-8:30pm. The concert from 9pm – midnight featured DJ-GetLive, Ro James, Bridget Kelly and Wynter Gordon.

The program partners are passionate about enriching and empowering the lives of children living in poverty in Haiti. Through the Love and Serve Haiti Project, American and Haitian musicians will lead workshops that will teach and feed over 400 children in Haiti at the Pou Soley Leve Schools December 28th – 29th, 2012.

Reco Jeans is proud to be a part of the Love and Serve event, a night to benefit the children of Haiti, which will be held at the Gramarcy Theatre in New York City on October 22.

Reco Jeans will be taking presale orders on our current line of upcycled denim jeans, and a portion of the proceeds from each pair sold will go to Pou Soley Leve, an organization that gives food, clothing and hope to children in the poorest neighborhoods in Haiti.

Hosted by Supermodels Dani Evans (America’s Next Top Model) and Monica Watkins (Ford Modeling Agency), the night also boasts some great national and international Art and Musical talent. Wynter Gordon, Bridgette Kelly(toured with Jay Z), Ronnie “RO” James, and DJ GetLive are all performing live sets throughout the evening.

Reco Jeans was recently interviewed by FAT Wardrobe about our signature line of upcycled denim. Fashion Blogger and FATW co-founder Nazya Ayaz talks with Mark James about the process of collecting production scraps to be made into new jeans made out of recycled denim. In the styling segment, Melissa Santos and Jeffrey Feliz-Ybes show how uncycled denim can be dressed up or down for any occasion, with other wardrobe provided by Cecilia Motwani and Norma Ishak.

Contest Rules:

Styling

Show us your best summer denim outfits! Each look needs a minimum of 3 pieces, including 1 top and 1 or more accessories (e.g. handbags, shoes), and most importantly 1 item of denim for the lower body (e.g. shorts, skirts, jeans).

Outfits may be styled on a person, mannequin, or creatively laid out. Show us your creative side and don’t be afraid to express yourself!

Entries must be followers of Reco Jeans (@recojeans) and have the hashtag #recostyle on all entries.

Each outfit you enter should be your own original creation. We don’t mean you have to make each item yourself, you just can’t copy the overall style from somewhere else. and of course, we prefer if you use Reco Jeans(but its ok if you don’t).

Voting
Winners will be chosen by how many “likes” a look has received on Instagram in the calendar month they are entered. We want you to win, so share it with as many people as you can, however you can! You can post the link on facebook and twitter, but remember that the “likes” for monthly winners can only come from instagram.

Contestants may enter an unlimited amount of entries and 1 winner will be announced at the end of each month leading up through August 2012. Once a contestant wins a month, they are no longer eligible to keep entering the contest.

The 3 finalists from each month will be entered in for the Grand prize: A trip to New York City.

Monthly Prize

• $25 gift card for ROOZT.com
• A Pair of Reco Jeans of your choice

Grand Prize

• A trip to New York: Details TBD (to be determined)

**To make it fair the Grand Prize details will be announced after the final monthly winner is chosen in August.

If your company is interested in being a sponcer or wish to make a donation for this contest, please email info@recojeans.com

Now, the boring stuff:

By entering this contest, participants further agree to the Reco Jeans Terms & Conditions.

1. Contest open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington, D.C., 21 years or older at time of entry. Employees of recojeans.com, the judges and their immediate families are excluded.

2. Only images taken of “fashion looks” during the time of the contest that are being judged will be considered for the competition. Images must be tagged to the Reco Jeans Instagram handle in order to be included in the competition. Photos, or one substantially similar to it, may not have been published, nor have won, or be currently entered in, any other photo contest. However, photos that have been uploaded previously to the Reco Jeans Instagram handle are eligible to be submitted to this contest. Photos must have been taken by the entrant and must depict their “fashion look” that is currently being judged. All photos submitted that are not representative of the specific look being judged will be removed from the competition.

3. No entry fee is required. Entrants are allowed unlimited submissions per month, but can only be selected as a winner once. Each month there will be one first place winner for a total of three equal first place prizes at the end of the contest. At the end of the contest there will be one grand prize winner. Contestants may submit photos for all three months of the contest, however if the contestant wins the first place prize they may not enter the contest again. Each contestant must fill out the required entrant information online before submitting any and all photos.

4. Information required on the entry form must be accurate in order for the image to qualify. Required information for the entry form includes – full contact name/information, email address of entrant and age. Entrant must be the photographer who captured the image and he/she must own all rights to the image. Model releases are required where appropriate and are the responsibility of the photographer. Pornographic images and any image that at any stage involved cruelty or violence to humans (including children) or animals/wildlife will not be permitted and will be disqualified.

5. Only photos complying with the rules may win. Photos will be judged by a qualified panel of judges on the basis of the following: 1) How well the photo conveys the look 2) How well the image conveys the style being judged. 3) Photographic quality 4) Visual appeal. 5) Originality. The contest will be judged by a panel of judges selected by Reco Jeans. The decisions of the judges are final and binding.

6. Winners will be notified via email and are required to sign and return within 21 days of notification an affidavit of eligibility and release of liability, together with model releases from all recognizable persons pictured in the photo. To the extent permitted by law, winners will also be required to grant Reco Jeans use of the winning photo, together with their names, likenesses and biographical information, in advertising and publicity about the Contest or future contests without further compensation. Failure to comply with all these conditions may result in prize forfeiture.

7. Winners may not transfer prize rights nor obtain substitutions or cash redemptions. All taxes on prizes and incidental expenses not specified in the above prize descriptions are solely the responsibility of winners. Offer void where prohibited by law.

8. Reco Jeans reserves the right to disqualify anyone who, in their opinion, has tampered with or disrupted the entry process or operation of this contest or violated the rules. If the contest cannot be run as planned for any reason, including technical problems, Reco Jeans reserves the right to cancel, curtail, modify or suspend the contest. In the event the contest is terminated early, winners will be selected from all eligible electronic entries submitted prior to the termination.

Coming Soon!

Till then, enjoy our instagram feed
@RecoJeans

The article showcases 10 brands different techniques for making denim production more of a sustainable industry. It has only been a few short years since the terms sustainable and fashion seemed to be polar opposites. Sustainable fashion was “green” fashion, a realm of rough materials, bland earth tones and hemp fabric.. and blue jeans, a staple of everyone’s wardrobe, were among the most environmentally detrimental garments to produce.

From its beginnings, Reco Jeans has focused on making them one and the same. Our signature Upcycled denim jeans are as eco friendly as they are in fashion. They look good, they feel good, and it’s easy to feel good wearing them knowing that each step you take is a step toward making a whole industry more sustainable.

onearth.com is a site that touts itself as “A Survival Guide for the Planet”, and they recently published an in depth article on how destructive denim production is for the environment.

The article breaks down how each stage is detrimental, from the water and pesticides used to grow the cotton, to the chemicals and energy required for production, to the dyeing and distressing techniques used to give jeans their distinctive look.

onearth also goes on to ask the question that a growing number of enviromental agencies are asking: is organic cotton is actually better for the environment.

If you were hoping to save the world by the seat of your pants, think again. Organic cotton jeans are a good first step, but few are processed in a planet-lite manner. The evolution of jeans from durable work wear to fashion statement came at a heavy cost: each new shade of blue, each stone wash and slick finish, requires yet another rinse cycle-and more energy and water.

onearth points out that organic cotton yields can be up to 50% lower than traditionally produced cotton, which makes it impossible to supply the worlds demand for cotton goods. Reco Jeans Upcycles manufacturing scraps to make the denim we use in our jeans. Over 60% of the cotton we use comes from pre-consumer fabric scraps, reducing the need for fresh cotton by 40%. That means each pair of jeans requires 800 gallons less fresh water to produce.

It also goes on to say how little things are often overlooked, like the production of zippers and rivets. Reco Jeans is proud to say that all the metal in our jeans is completely non-toxic and we dont use any chemicals or finishing agents.

onearth goes on to recommend that you check the maunfactures website for more information before you decide what jeans to buy, and we couldn’t agree more.
Check out the new Reco Jeans Website and current Collection.

The Pearl river located in Chinese town Xintang, known as the Blue Jean capital of the world. Greenpeace testing found five heavy metals in 17 out of 21 water and sediment samples taken from throughout Xintang and Gurao.

For years, only industry insiders and environmental watch groups were aware of how truly detrimental manufacturing denim was for the surrounding environment. Whats most surprising is that what finally brought it to mainstream attention wasn’t an eco-organization, but rather Levi Strauss & Co., a name that’s synonymous with blue jean production. When they released their findings about the life cycle assessment of a single pair of 501 jeans in 2006, it brought to light just how big of an impact denim manufacturing can have on the environment.

“Examining the 2006 production year for jeans headed to the U.S. market, Levi’s found that making one pair of 501s required almost 920 gallons of water, 400 megajoules of energy and expelled 32 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Levi’s said this was equivalent to running a garden hose for 106 minutes, driving 78 miles and powering a computer for 556 hours.”

Organic cotton has come to be known as the more eco-friendly alternative, but the author warns that it “does little to change [the] numbers,”. Organic cotton is grown without the use of enhanced fertilizers, chemicals, or pesticides. It also requires more land, more water, and cannot produce enough raw cotton to maintain the industry. According to Tucker:

“its important for those purchasing it to understand that truly organic cotton is a low-yield crop and can’t support the world’s demand for denim.”

So then, what is a viable solution? The author looks to technological advances for manufacturing that inherently reduce the resources needed for production.

Sound familiar? Yep. Its what we do here at Reco. Every pair of our signature jeans are made from upcycled production scraps that we collect from the cutting room floors of factories, and then transform them into brand new designer denim. It saves water by requiring less fresh cotton. Fewer pesticides are used because we dont need to maintain such a large cotton supply. Less fabric waste winds up in landfills.

It’s important to note that many of the technologies Tucker names in his article are still in the research and development stage, or are cost prohibitive for all but the largest names in the industry. What makes this such a step forward is that now companies are starting to consider measures that make production more cost effective environmentally helpful as part of their policy. We couldn’t agree more.

Case in point: In the mid 60′s, premium beer brewer Alfred Heineken had Dutch architect John Habraken design a “brick that holds beer” after a trip to the Caribbean, where he saw an excess of trash on the beach and a deficiency in building supplies. Dubbed the “WOBO”, which was short for world bottle, it was designed with flat sides to be stackable with recessed bottoms so as to be interlocking.

100,000 bottles were produced, but the idea was unfortunately ahead of its time and never went into full production. A wall at the Heineken museum and one small shed are all that is known to currently exist, but with an exploding global population and limited amount of resources, this brilliant idea from the past will hopefully be revisited in the future.

For more, read the full article on inhabitat.com and check our their write up on Reco Jeans.