TEXTILE ITG Closing Cone’s White Oak Denim Mill 
 
 After 112 years in operation, Cone Denim’s White Oak mill in Greensboro, N.C., will close at the end of the year. 
 
 According to a company statement, “changes in market demand” impacted order volume as customers shifted sourcing offshore. The company praised the “tremendous efforts on the part of the plant staff and all employees to manage these changes” but said the facility’s size and capacity led to “a significantly higher manufacturing cost that cannot be supported in a sustainable business going forward.” 
 
 About 200 people are employed at the mill, which produces denim for Cone, including the company’s selvage denim woven on vintage selvage looms from the 1940s. The White Oak facility produced Cone’s U.S.-made fabrics. Cone, founded in 1891, also produces denim in Mexico and China. The White Oak facility opened in 1905. 
 
 In recent years, demand for selvage denim prompted Cone to track down and refurbish 1940s-era American Draper X3 fly-shuttle looms. In 2013, Cone boosted its selvage denim production by 25 percent by installing additional vintage X3 looms. 
 
 Kenneth T. Kunberger, president and chief executive officer of Cone Denim and its parent company, International Textile Group, said the White Oak mill represented “the essence of Cone’s heritage.” 
 
 “We truly regret having to take this action to close the mill, and we deeply appreciate the loyalty and dedication of all current and former employees of the White Oak mill,” he said in a company statement. “Their talent, effort, innovation, dedication and customer focus all combined to create a White Oak brand, heritage and legacy that will forever be the heart of the Cone Denim business. Today that legacy fuels inspiration and drives innovation throughout Cone’s global denim platform, furthering Cone’s tremendous leadership in denim authenticity, sustainability and performance.” 
 
 ITG said it will work with its White Oak customers “to fulfill all orders and to meet customer needs over the coming months.” The company also plans to work with employees who are impacted by the closure to provide transition services and other support, such as severance benefits and help finding training resources and other employment opportunities. 
 
 The closure of the White Oak plant is a blow to domestic denim production, which has been limited to just a handful of mills, including Denim North America and Mount Vernon Mills. 
 
 Based in Greensboro, ITG has ten manufacturing operations in the U.S., Mexico and China. ITG also owns Burlington Industries, which produces textiles for apparel, military and technical applications. Last year, ITG was acquired by private-equity firm Platinum Equity for $99 million. ITG had been owned by W.L. Ross & Co., the investment firm owned by Wilbur Ross, who was named U.S. Secretary of Commerce in February. Ross purchased Cone and Burlington in 2004. 

 The word ‘selvedge’ relates to the ‘self-edge’ of fabric. Selvedge is woven so the fabric’s ‘edge’ can be used in garment construction. In regards to jean construction, using the outer edge of the denim (the self-edge), makes a jean a ‘selvedge’ denim jean. See a finished selvedge jean. 
 
 Origins of Selvedge Denim 
 
 Selvedge denim is woven using old-fashioned denim-weaving techniques; most authentically woven on old looms. See finished selvedge jeans. Selvedge looms were popular in denim weaving until the mid-to-late 1900’s. US denim mills began modernizing their machinery to speed production as demand for denim grew world-wide. For these mills, that were focused more and more on increasing output, the use of old selvedge looms became unwanted, making the looms obsolete due to their slower and less consistent production. 
 
 However, today, selvedge denim has become more desirable than non-selvedge for two reasons: the nuance of the denim weaving technique itself and the commitment to quality from the mills producing selvedge denim. Japanese mills are the unquestionable leaders in selvedge denim production, nowadays. 
 
 Selvedge tends to have a tighter, denser weave than non-selvedge. The higher density gives the denim a sturdier hand. The use of the older selvedge loom technology also creates variations on the denim surface (due to inconsistencies in the weaving process) compared to denim woven on modern looms. These variations make the denim visually unique and highly desirable. 
 
 Denim mills that have committed to the production of selvedge denim understand and value the nuance and history of denim. With their advanced knowledge comes a desire, as well as a self-imposed responsibility to make a superior product. For these mills, yarn quality, dyeing techniques, quality control, design and innovation take heightened priority as compared to mills focused on commodity, high-volume production. The result is an undeniable increase of the overall quality of selvedge. 
 
 Selvedge or Selvage? 
 
 The word selvedge comes from “self-edge.” The edge of the denim has a clean finish, since it will not unravel, the edge of the fabric is used as the garment’s outseam. Therefore, looking at the inside of the outseam, is an easy way to identify a pair of jeans made from selvedge denim. 
 
 There are variant spellings of the term: selvedge or selvage. Both are grammatically correct. The brand prefers using the former in its product titles and description, because of its direct reference to the root word “edge.” 
 
 As the above photograph reveals, the selvedge denim has the white edge with blue thread. This is the “self-edge” of the denim. A non-selvedge jean will need a merrow stitch (or cleaning stitch) on this edge to keep the denim from unraveling. 
 
 Constructing a Selvedge Jean 
 
 The above picture shows how to place a jean pattern onto selvedge denim before cutting. This clarifies the use of “self-edge.” Selvedge is narrower than non-selvedge. Fully using the “self-edges” minimizes fabric waste. (As seen in the first photograph of this article). 
 
 Selvedge denim is not the same as raw denim. Raw denim has never been washed. Therefore, all denim, selvedge or non-selvedge, is raw when it comes out of the loom. Washed denim is no longer raw. 
 
 There may be many questions concerning the differences between selvedge and non-selvedge denim. One is not superior to the other in terms of quality and longevity. Moreover, the cotton and the dyeing processes used for selvedge are not necessarily different than those used for non-selvedge. In question of comfort, non-selvedge may offer somewhat more flexibility in fabric. However, selvedge is undeniably more desirable and attractive, and the Todd Shelton brand recommends highly and truly the purchase of selvedge jeans.
– Moses and Ceasar Cone founded their denim brand in the late 19th century, and in 1905 opened the Cone Denim White Oak plant in Greensboro, NC. Within three years, it was churning out more denim than anywhere else in the world, reports the Triad City Beat; in its heyday, White Oak clocked in at 1.6 million square feet, making it the world's largest such plant and the long-time supplier of denim for Levi's 501 jeans. After a 112-year run, what the New York Times calls a "shrine to bluejeans and the last major manufacturer of selvage denim" in America will close Dec. 31 (the company does have plants in Mexico and China); current owner International Textile Group made the announcement, which affects 208 workers, in October. Though the plant does employ modern looms, it also made denim the "right" and "painstaking" way, per the Times. As Apparel News explains, a rising desire for selvage denim (see a primer on the sturdier, more unique, and pricier denim here) spurred Cone to source and refurbish 1940s-era American Draper X3 fly-shuttle looms to produce it. The official word from the company on the closure cited "changes in market demand" and noted that the plant's size and capacity created "a significantly higher manufacturing cost that cannot be supported in a sustainable business going forward." The Winston-Salem Journal shares another of the plant's claims-to-fame: During 1969 storms, 3 million yards of denim ended up getting wet and required cleaning. Workers washed it in a chemical solution that caused streaks in the fabric—and Cone sold it anyway, under the name "pinto wash," giving America its first bleached jeans. (Now we are instead a nation that wears these and these.)