G-Star RAW Uses Denim Key to Open Doorway in Time

A high-quality pair of denim pants experience time similarly to humans, whose aging process is simply gracious. Every stage of getting old has its own charm — whether we speak about humans or denim, they each start to have wrinkles, lines, scars, and scuffs as they progress in life. Interestingly, not many pairs of jeans get to experience these marks time leaves on them. In an effort to extend the lifetime of its clothes, G-Star RAW challenges people to defy fashion trends and wear their denim for a longer period of time. Possibly even for a lifetime.

Jeans are like wine, getting better with age — a bold statement but which we back up with the brand’s new campaign, “Wear Your Denim Till the End,” developed with the help of agency The Family Amsterdam, production company HALAL, post-house Ambassadors, and AI specialist Revel.ai. Part of G-Star RAW’s Responsibility Strategy — which launches a new raw denim collection that comes with a lifetime warranty — the campaign encourages consumers to love their jeans not only in their first stages of life, when they are fresh off the shelf, but also when they start to show the first signs of oldness.

Just recently, we have learned that denim is one of the most polluting fabrics to produce via the “Cleopatra’s Jeans” campaign, an initiative aimed at tackling textile waste and turning it into history. In the campaign for tech company TG3D Studio, we discovered that, each year, 85% of all textiles are thrown away. A large part of this percentage comes from returned clothing purchases, which happens because of badly fitting garments. And while the tech company tries to fix the problem by combining fashion with technology, G-Star RAW tries to make a difference by kindly asking consumers to work on a pro-planet wardrobe.

The film accompanying the brand’s 8 Raw Responsibility initiatives, directed by HALAL’s Paul Geusebroek, feels as if a “time-travel” portal has been recently unlocked, a gateway that links the aging process of denim with that of humans. Through this doorway in time G-Star has opened, the audience is invited to follow the film’s hero as he gradually travels from spring — where he’s spotted as a young man — to winter — where we meet his older version. The idea behind the film is to put an end to throwaway fashion and encourage consumers to “Wear [their] denim till the End.”

“At its core, this film is about G-Star’s mission to improve the social and environmental impact of their products, without compromising what makes it a special and universally loved brand,” said Joris Kuijpers, Executive Creative Director at The Family. “Waste is amongst the biggest issues in the fashion industry. What’s special about denim is that it can last a lifetime, if you take care of it and embrace its different stages of life. Which is exactly what Paul Geusebroek has expressed in this film. Once again, he has directed a spot that transcends mere marketing, telling a very human story with elegance and panache.”

The film fascinates viewers not only through its images and storyline but also via the technology that was used to make the protagonist’s aging process as convincing as possible. Thanks to a collaboration with post-house Ambassadors and AI specialist Revel.ai, a mix of deepfake technology and VFX was used to track the way time naturally influences his looks.

“We physically captured all different facial expressions from the actor, filming our protagonist from all angles with a multi-camera set-up. We then used an AI algorithm in combination with our own proprietary software to develop a digital human that looks exactly like the main character. That digital model combined with shots of different actors at different ages, plus VFX, all helped create a realistic story of a man and his jeans,” commented Bob de Jong, Deep Fake Artist, Revel.

Bas Moonen, VFX Supervisor, Ambassadors, continued: “Some VFX magic was the final step to integrating each aged and de-aged version of our protagonist into the film. We worked to transfer the subtlety of human expression from one face to another, removing lines here and there, augmenting certain parts, or completely reshaping a head. Whatever it took to reflect all stages of life in a truly realistic way.”

“Raw denim is at the core of our brand DNA,” explained Gwenda van Vliet, G-Star CMO. “At G-Star, we embrace the aging process of denim and we are proud of how we have been able to capture the beauty of this journey in the latest global brand campaign. I really see this as a call out to value your denim and wear it longer.”

G-Star’s new capsule collection — a line of raw denim garments for both men and women — is accompanied by a “lifetime warranty,” so that consumers can wear their jeans till the end. The initiative is underpinned by a social and digital marketing push and includes a global rollout with a focus on the USA, Germany, Japan, and South Africa.