Denim has become the category every label wants a piece of, and the mills that make the good version of it have not multiplied to match.
The entry cost looks modest. A denim line needs a wash house, a pattern cutter who understands shrinkage, and a mill willing to give an unproven label a production slot.
Each of those is a bottleneck. Selvedge capacity sits with a handful of producers, and premium laundries run on seasonal allocation rather than open order.
Labels that entered for margin are discovering the inventory discipline the category demands. Denim is bought across fits and size runs, and a misjudged rise can strand stock in every size at once.
Finishing is a compliance problem too. Washing is water and chemical intensive, and European rules on both have moved from voluntary guidance to binding requirement.
The likely winners are the houses that treat denim as a manufacturing competence rather than a seasonal extension of a product calendar.
