The Simple Folk
July 18, 2026
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The Simple Folk sustainability review: the real plant fibre percentage and natural score, tested by label to the Throne Standard. See the data.
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| Brand | 0Pure Blue JapanYou’re viewing |
5The Simple Folk | 5Where Does It Come From? | 5Momotaro Jeans | ＋ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fibre score | 0 / 5 | 5 / 5 | 5 / 5 | 5 / 5 | |
| Plant fibre | 0% | 100% | 100% | 100% | |
| Synthetic | 100% | 0% | 0% | 0% | |
| Styles scanned | 0 | 116 | 89 | 44 | |
| GOTS | — | — | — | — | |
| Cotton origin | USA and India (premium… | Not disclosed | India | Zimbabwe (many flagship models… |
Real figures from the Throne Standard scan. Add any of 1,000+ scanned brands in the compare tool.
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The Simple Folk sustainability review: the real plant fibre percentage and natural score, tested by label to the Throne Standard. See the data.
Q for Quinn sustainability review: the real plant fibre percentage and natural score, tested by label to the Throne Standard. See the data.
Winter Water Factory sustainability review: the real plant fibre percentage and natural score, tested by label to the Throne Standard. See the data.
Pure Blue Japan is a Kurashiki, Okayama denim maker whose fabric is woven at old Okayama mills on vintage shuttle and low tension looms, using premium cotton from the USA and India plus organic cotton in its organic series and rope dyed indigo. Pure Blue Japan discloses cotton origin countries and the Okayama weaving and dyeing region, giving reasonable fibre to garment context for denim. However most of this detail is documented by retailers such as Okayama Denim rather than by the brand’s own site, and Pure Blue Japan names no specific mill, spinner or cotton farm and publishes no formal supplier list.
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Documented facts: Pure Blue Japan is a genuine independent Japanese denim brand (founded 1997, Okayama, by Ken-ichi Iwaya), still trading, making its garments in Japan on vintage shuttle looms as a small-scale, small-batch operation. These points are corroborated across the brand's official site, a founder interview (Robin Denim, 2019), editorial profiles (Heddels), and multiple current retailers.
Pure Blue Japan garments are made in Japan, specifically in the Okayama region (the traditional heart of Japanese denim manufacturing), where the brand is based. Production uses vintage/customized shuttle looms at small partnered mills in Okayama (shuttle looms cited from Ibara, Okayama) with rope-dyed indigo yarns and specialised sewing machines. Retailers describe the raw cotton as sourced from the United States and India, then spun, dyed, woven, and sewn in Japan. Every source consistently states the brand is "100% made in Japan / made in Okayama."
Pure Blue Japan (often abbreviated PBJ) is an independent, founder-owned Japanese denim brand founded in 1997 by Ken-ichi Iwaya in Kurashiki-city, Okayama, Japan. It is not owned by a larger parent/holding company; a 2019 founder interview describes it as a small independent operation run by Iwaya with a team of around five people. The brand was originally called "Syoaiya" (after "shoai," the term for natural indigo dyeing), before adopting the Pure Blue Japan name. Note: "Blue in Green" is a separate New York retailer that helped introduce PBJ to Western markets from ~2005 and is not the brand's owner.
Pure Blue Japan is a real, legitimate, and currently-trading business. Its official website (purebluejapan.org) is active with a functioning e-commerce store and current product prices (e.g., jeans around $235–$380, natural-indigo/heavyweight models up to ~$420), and the brand is stocked by numerous established current specialty retailers worldwide including Okayama Denim, Self Edge, Blue Owl Workshop, Blue in Green Soho, Clutch Cafe, Hinoya, and Redcast Heritage. The brand has a documented ~28-year history (founded 1997) and a well-known founder. This is confirmed as the clothing/denim brand and not a same-name business in another industry.
Pure Blue Japan is the opposite of fast fashion; it is a slow, small-batch, artisanal selvedge denim maker. The founder described the operation as a small team (about five people) producing "100% original" textured selvedge denim on customised vintage shuttle looms at small partnered mills, with seasonal and limited-edition runs rather than mass production. High price points ($235–$420+ per garment), heavyweight indigo-dyed selvedge fabrics, and low-volume production on slow vintage looms all place it firmly in the slow-fashion / heritage-craft category.
Certifications: Not publicly documented. No third-party certifications (GOTS, OEKO-TEX, Fair Trade, B Corp, or European Flax) are stated on Pure Blue Japan's official website or in any retailer or editorial source reviewed. Targeted searches for PBJ plus these certifications returned no brand-specific results. Pure Blue Japan markets itself on craft and traditional indigo dyeing (aizome) rather than on formal certification schemes; the absence of documented certifications should not be read as either compliance or non-compliance, only that none are verifiable..
Pure Blue Japan does not publicly document a recognised textile certification such as GOTS or OEKO-TEX in the sources we checked. What we can confirm is the material itself: our scan of 67 Pure Blue Japan styles found 100.0% is 100% plant fibre, so Pure Blue Japan's natural-fibre standing rests on its composition rather than a certificate.
So many Pure Blue Japan basics are pure cotton, but Pure Blue Japan's fitted and active styles typically add a small share of synthetic.
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