Will LasryFounder, Glass Factory · 1.5M+ Online | Vogue 100 Innovators

Butterflying Denim For The Perfect Fade

6 Feb 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:55

In this video, the presenter explains the "butterflying" denim finishing technique. Dry garments are placed in a tumbler together with towels that have been soaked in a proprietary oxidant solution. The oxidant only attacks the surface of the fabric, creating an acid‑wash‑like, lighter appearance. After tumbling, the garments are dried, which further brightens the color, and then they are sent to an overdyeing stage. The process also recycles heat from other machines to power the butterflying unit, and the method intentionally preserves the uneven, distressed look generated in the early steps.

Chapters

It's called butterflying, right? Basically, you have like dry garments and rugs soaked with an oxidant that can like oxidate the only the surface, eating like a really strong effect. There's a bunch of these different towels that are in there that are soaked with an oxidant that creates an acid wash-like effect. The oxidant is applied onto the towel. It's their own formula. This dry garment, which is very far from done, goes through this tumbling process with the oxidized rags in order to create this much lighter garment. So when it goes through the dryer, it's going to become even whiter. That color is going to come out even more. After this, it's going to be sent to overdyeing. So you're recycling all the heat from your other machines and using it on this machine. One by one, the hanger like this comes inside and then it comes out dry. They're able to really retain that unevenness they created in the initial steps of the process.