Cone Mills Denim: An Investigation into Fabrication, Tradition, and Quality

Abstract

This article examines the history and changing significance of the White Oak denim mill in Greensboro, North Carolina. Built by the Cone Mills corporation in 1905, White Oak was a leading denim supplier to multiple workwear and jeans manufacturers in the United States and overseas through much of the twentieth century. White Oak manufactured denim and adjusted production in accordance with advancements in loom and textile technology, yet by the mid-1980s denim designers in Japan inspired by vintage American jeans procured by collectors began recreating the look and feel of older, vintage denim that White Oak no longer produced. Having re-installed vintage looms as sites of experimentation for high-end specialty denim design in the original mill, White Oak operated for 30 years as a specialty denim producer, making textiles for the consumer of heritage brands and classic American menswear. The divergent definitions of quality and taste evidenced through White Oak’s contribution to the shifting denim market are evaluated along three axes: the mill’s historical past, its revitalized role as a “heritage” American denim manufacturer, and the emotionally charged, nostalgic space in between that informs how its history is told.

Keywords:

• denim
• American manufacture
• Japanese denim
• textile technology
• heritage branding

Acknowledgements

The author would like to extend special thanks to Dr Pat Kirkham and Michele Majer for their support, and to Bud Strickland and Stahle Vincent at White Oak mill for contributing their time.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sonya Abrego

Dr Sonya Abrego was awarded a PhD from Bard Graduate Center in 2016 upon completing her dissertation “Westernwear and the Postwar American Lifestyle 1945– 1965.” Her research interests include twentieth-century American ready-to-wear, design history, American studies, and film. She presently teaches classes including “The Cultural History of Denim” at Parsons: The New School for Design and the Pratt Institute.

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