Our stitch
A patch you can see, on purpose.
GIRAVUNO makes jeans, denim jackets and chore coats that leave the factory with a sashiko-style patch already stitched on, and the kits to stitch the next one yourself.
The patch is the design
Visible mending turns a repair into something worth looking at. We start from the other end: the patch is drawn into the garment from the beginning.
Every pair of jeans, every jacket and every chore coat is made new by our manufacturing partner. The patch is cut from pale denim, rust twill or undyed cotton, placed where the drawing puts it, and stitched through in white cotton thread before the garment ships. Nothing is second-hand, and nothing has been worn.
The patterns follow traditional sashiko designs. We use their names because that is what they are called; we do not claim our garments are made in Japan, and we do not describe them as hand-stitched.
Four patterns
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01 Cross jūji
The first pattern most people learn: short stitches that meet in tiny plus signs, laid out in a steady grid. Dense, strong and the quickest to stitch, which is why it covers knees and pockets.
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02 Wave seigaiha
Seigaiha, the wave: rows of concentric arcs that overlap like fish scales or a rising tide. It bends with the fabric, so we use it on elbows, seats and hems that move.
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03 Hemp Leaf asanoha
Asanoha, the hemp leaf: straight lines that meet in six-pointed stars. The most intricate of the four, and the one that reads furthest across a room.
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04 Grid kōshi
Kōshi, the lattice: straight lines crossing at right angles. Calm, graphic and easy to extend, so it works on large panels and on a single pocket alike.
Turn it over
On every product page you can turn the patch over and see the inside: where the thread travels from row to row, where it is knotted, and how the edge of the patch is folded under. It is the honest side of a stitch, and the side that tells you how well it is made.
Indigo fades with wear, and the white thread fades with it. Small differences in stitch spacing from one piece to the next are part of the work.
Mend one, learn one
Our mending kits use the same patch cloth and the same cotton thread as our denim. Each comes with sashiko needles and a pattern card that shows the spacing and the order of the rows, so you can patch an old pair of jeans, or add a second patch to a new one.
Pre-stitched patches come in sets of three with an iron-on backing, for when you want the look without the needle. The bandanas carry the same four patterns, printed.
What we write down
Every garment page gives the fibre content, the denim weight in ounces and grams, the wash, the fit, and the position and size of the patch in centimetres. Jeans are sized by waist and inside leg, jackets and coats from XS to XXL, with a size guide in UK, EU, centimetres and inches.
We do not publish reviews we have not received, and we do not make claims about where or by whom something was made that we cannot back up.