Workwear is our lifeblood, the backbone of everything we do. The intersection of versatility, comfort, and durability is the sweet spot for The Hundreds, where staple pieces stick with you forever. The best kind of wardrobe standouts are the ones that get better with age, the ones that pick up a patina over the years and turn into something completely different every decade.

While The Hundreds is just about to reach adulthood this Summer, with 18 years under our belt, we fancy ourselves some old souls. We strive to make the kind of workwear pieces that get passed down from generation to generation, much like those vintage pairs of jeans that have been floating around your family tree for longer than you’ve been alive.

Actually, go grab your oldest pair of jeans, the ones you found in the back of your parent’s closet, the ones your mom told you she saw the Eagles in back in the day, the ones your Grandpa built your house in. Trying to see something.

I bet they have a slouchy, lazy “S” on the back pocket, don’t they?

Those are Lee Jeans, and they’re likely going to outlive both of us. So, go enjoy yourself in them. Leave your mark on them, and let them leave their mark on you. Chances are, some of your best work and most memorable experiences will happen in them.

People have been wearing these jeans through thick and thin for over 130 years, making Lee one of the most American brands there is. I can’t confirm this but Henry Ford was probably rocking Lees the first time he whipped a Model T around the block. Shoot, Buddy Lee is like a decade older than Mickey Mouse. It doesn’t get more American than Lee Jeans.

But just because Lee Jeans is old doesn’t mean they aren’t looking to the future, eager to merge their rich legacy and exciting new endeavors. Rather than resting on their laurels and sticking to what has worked for well over a century, Lee is changing for the better.

Let’s face it, denim does damage, traditionally. The manufacturing of everyone’s favorite fabric is extremely harmful to the environment, using far more than its fair share of water and other natural resources to create every pair. So, it’s inspiring that one of the biggest names in denim is embracing change so enthusiastically, committing to more sustainable manufacturing processes and celebrating vintage culture.

I caught up with Lee Jeans VP Global Design Betty Madden, a seasoned veteran in the space, to learn more about where Lee has been and where it’s going, as well as the insane way she cleans her jeans.

DUKE LONDON: Hi Betty, how are you?
BETTY MADDEN: I’m good, you hanging in there?

I’m hanging in there. Currently on a road trip across the country, so I’m actually talking to you from a truck stop outside Cleveland.
It is funny because it does sound like you’re somewhere seedy a little bit. Like it sounds kinda muffled a little bit. [Laughs]

[Laughs] I’m sorry! Are you having trouble hearing me?
I just turned you up!

Betty, I appreciate you taking the time today. We’re very excited to work with Lee Jeans, such an institution in this space. And you know, denim gets taken for granted sometimes, so it’s always cool to get to dive a little bit deeper into something we all love.
No, it’s been a really cool experience to work with you guys and whenever you can bring two kinds of complementary, yet sort of contrasting, brands together, it’s magic.

Let me start right there with collaborations. How does Lee use new collaborations to try different things and flex its creative muscle?
Well, it’s amazing because there are a few great examples, you guys being one of them. You always want to see what each brand is going to bring to the table and the magic that comes out of that.

Then, when you think about our collaboration with you, it’s a similar thing. We have deep roots in streetwear, street culture, music. Anything cool that happened in the ‘80s and ‘90s, you can pretty much uncover some Lee products captured somewhere in the imagery. A collaboration with a company like The Hundreds brings a new consumer, a new awareness, and also a new perspective along with different elements that we haven’t talked about in a long time. The way that you brought Buddy Lee to life in a new way is amazing.

The Hundreds is all about storytelling and Lee does that really well too, and a lot of it is built on nostalgia. We want to go back and relive our favorite moments and we want to tell younger generations about those moments in meaningful ways. Especially in fashion, everything is so cyclical, so how do you farm your archives for pieces you think will work again?
A competitive advantage that we have over most denim brands and quite frankly, brands in general, is that we have roots in workwear, we have roots in the military, we have roots in streetwear, we have roots in almost every industry. So when you think about fashion being circular, one year it’s about the military, the next year it’s about work, the next year it’s just about John Cougar Mellencamp denim. We have true stories to tell about every facet of fashion. From punk rock to cowboys, we were there. So when you think about, for example, when we started collaborating with The Hundreds, it wasn’t hard to mine our archives, which we have probably one of the most beautifully maintained archives around. If about picking out pieces that speak to your design team that you can adapt and tell a story around.

What’s beautiful about denim is it’s so timeless. Unfortunately, one of the things that’s wrong with denim is it uses an incredible amount of resources, from wastewater pollution to unsustainable dyeing practices. How is Lee looking to make changes within its own processes to address this?
Every day, we’re talking about sustainability and what we can do better every season. We’ve been using recycled poly in our products for a very long time. But what we’ve been mainly working on over the past few years is water conservation, foam dying, etc. We have the goal to be 100 percent laser by 2023, and we’re really focused on achieving that goal. The denim that we’ve been able to create as a part of our sustainability efforts without has been beautiful. We’re choosing better fabrics, whether they’re organic or we’re using hemp. Everything we do is with the intention of improving the footprints we’re leaving behind.

We’re going through the same thing, as every brand is, just figuring out new and innovative ways to make the things we love in better ways. It’s an amazing challenge. One other thing within this sustainability sector is vintage, and for a brand as old as Lee, there are obviously so many classic pieces out there. I’m wondering how you guys get involved in that community? Do you work with people who are putting these collections together, or repurposing items, or up-cycling?
In the vintage arena, we have not gone down that road yet. It’s something that we know is a part of sustainability. One thing that we have been talking about a lot over the past few weeks is working with brands who repurpose. Repurposing waste, repurposing things that would typically go in the trash. The future is in what you do with your waste. If you’re going to leave it on the cutting room floor, what can it be repurposed into? That is a big topic of conversation, especially with our supply chain, and we do some of that but I think we want to do it in a bigger way.

With a brand that carries as rich a history as Lee Jeans, how do you balance innovation and the traditions you’ve held at the brand for over 130 years?
Well, I think the cool thing is a lot of our pieces, as I’ve mentioned before, make their way back around to being really relevant. We have pieces in our female line right now that look really modern, and look like they are completely of the moment, but were made originally in 1949. In saying that though, we don’t want to be a brand that just constantly reissues the things that we’ve already made. We want to create new legends, we want to be making a mark, we want 20 years, 30 years from now for people to be collecting products that we’re making right now. We also want to make sure we’re consumer-focused. And sustainability is a huge part of innovation, so we can’t deny that those two things are interconnected. That’s always core to what we do.

After the year we’ve just had and most places continue to still have, what were some of the biggest challenges for Lee, and some things you guys learned coming out of it?
I think some of the things we thought were going to be big challenges turned out to be, in a way, blessings in disguise. When you think about Lee Jeans, we’ve always been focused on comfort and it’s always been about inclusivity. The entire company went on lockdown, but it’s helped us learn to be a lot more resourceful and resilient and I think it’s helped us to be more efficient with time. Sometimes you’re so married to the way that you do things that it’s hard to take a break and try to figure out how you can do better. I think Covid really showed us–forced us–to do better, be more efficient, make better choices.

How do you get people to transition back to wearing jeans from wearing sweats all the time at home during the pandemic?
Well… [Laughs] Denim always survives. Denim is cherished and denim can make you feel differently than any other pants. Denim will always be a staple, and that we just have to make sure we’re listening to what’s happening. I think we have to make sure that we’re still focused on comfort and that we’re not making jeans that no one wants to wear but that they feel good in, and I think we do.

How important are a person’s favorite jeans?
I have a pile of jeans I can’t even wear, but I treasure them because each of them has a story. I mean I can look at every vintage jean that I’ve collected over the years and you can fantasize about what that person’s life was like, or the climate, the environment. There’s something so rich and beautiful about denim. It’s like an heirloom. Even inexpensive denim eventually tells a story so… um yeah, don’t get me all weepy about denim. [Laughs]

[Laughs] No it’s great, I love how passionate you are about it and we’re the same way. In fact, in reading some of your older interviews, I learned I was disrespecting my favorite jeans by washing them. I need to know more about your freezer method.
Oh, there’s a good story there. Well, I grew up in a family where my mother was a freak about laundry so if you put it on your body to even try it on, it went right into the washing machine. And so every pair of jeans that I owned has been just completely obliterated in the washing machine, and I didn’t know any better because that’s how I was raised. Anything that was remotely dirty got put in the laundry. So, I came into work at one of my first design jobs back in the day and my boss said, “Did you wash your jeans?” And I said, “Oh of course I washed my jeans.” And he was like “Oh my god, never wash your jeans ever ever ever!” And I was like “Ever? Well like what if they stain?” And he’s like, “You put them in the freezer. You put them in the freezer and you kill all the bacteria. Then you pull them out and you let them air dry. Don’t ever, ever wash your jeans.” If you talk to anyone who’s a real denim freak, the freezer method is how you kill the stink.