When you’re down to the last of a fabric nobody can make anymore, you’d better make it count. That’s exactly what Wrangler and Nashville denim brand imogene + willie have done for Capsule No. 3, the third and final drop of their made-in-the-USA collaboration.
The capsule brings back a handful of silhouettes from earlier in the collab, each sewn from one of four deadstock fabrics produced by Cone Mills’ White Oak plant in Greensboro, North Carolina.
White Oak was once the largest denim producer in the world before it shut down in 2017. Wrangler had been holding on to its remaining stock ever since.
The full collaboration was patterned, cut, and sewn entirely in the US using domestic fabric. It’s Wrangler’s first domestically made collection in more than 20 years, built on imogene + willie’s own supply chain.
The first drop introduced White Oak selvedge on archival Wrangler fits like the 10MW. The second moved to broken twill from Mount Vernon Mills in Trion, Georgia, the last large-scale denim mill still running in the US. This one closes the loop back where it started, with rigid black and rigid khaki selvedge.
The last of the White Oak, spent on khaki
With a finite pile of the most storied American denim there is, the safe move would have been one more indigo, and maybe a black for good measure.
Imogene + willie did make the black, but the khaki is the more interesting call. Brown selvedge is a niche pick even among denim obsessives, and spending a chunk of the last White Oak stock on it is a real swing for a final drop.
From the photos, the cuts and colors here look phenomenal — modern classics that should stay that way for a long time. Given the effort it’ll take you to get your hands on these pants, that seems about right.
The three-drop structure has been smart, too. Each capsule had its own reason to exist: the deadstock, then a mill still in business, then the deadstock one last time. That’s a better story than dumping everything at once and hoping it sells.
The open question is what comes next. Once these sell through, the White Oak is gone for good. Whether Wrangler keeps any domestic production going without imogene + willie’s supply chain is definitely worth watching. If you’re building out a denim rotation with more American-made options, here are a few denim brands worth the investment.
Where to buy it
Capsule No. 3 is available starting November 7 exclusively at imogeneandwillie.com. Quantities are the most limited of the collaboration so far, so expect this to go quickly.
