{"id":517740,"date":"2025-10-21T19:31:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T19:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/517740\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T19:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T19:31:13","slug":"new-book-documents-white-oaks-final-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/517740\/","title":{"rendered":"New Book Documents White Oak’s Final Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cAmerican Denim: The Supposed Final Days and Resurgence of a Manufacturing Icon\u201d aims to preserve the legacy of Greensboro, N.C. White Oak<\/a>, its employees, and a unique time in the history of American textiles. Photographed by Matt Sharkey, the 224-page hardback from Schiffer Publishing tells the final chapter of the plant\u2019s story through 200 color photos curated into three parts: White Oak\u2019s final days of operation, its closure, and its revival making selvedge denim again under the care of the White Oak Legacy Foundation and Proximity Manufacturing Company.<\/p>\n

\n\tA part of Cone Denim<\/a>, the White Oak plant ended its 112-year run of continuous production in Greensboro in December 2017. International Textile Group, Inc. (ITG), the then-parent company of Cone, said that despite efforts to manage changes in the market, the demand for White Oak selvedge had significantly decreased as customers had transitioned more of their fabric sourcing outside the U.S. ITG said the plant\u2019s large size provided more capacity than was needed resulting in a significantly higher manufacturing cost that could not be supported.<\/p>\n

\n\tOpened in 1905 by brothers Moses and Ceasar Cone, White Oak in Greensboro, N.C. became the largest denim mill in the world occupying more than a million square feet. By 1910, it was supplying a third of the world\u2019s denim demand. Between 1915 and 1970, the lion\u2019s share of denim produced for Levi Strauss & Co. was made there. It\u2019s selvedge denim made on Draper X-3 looms became blue gold.<\/p>\n

\n\tPart of White Oak\u2019s legacy is the deal Cone struck with Levi\u2019s in 1915 which gave the brand exclusive rights to its XX 501 selvedge fabric produced at White Oak. \u201cThere are many brands that have significance\u2014Wrangler, Lee, Blue Bell\u2014in the denim space. But I think there\u2019s been a huge hat tip to Levi\u2019s for over 100 years for being the original, at least in the commercial eyes of the world for denim globally,\u201d Sharkey said.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor denim brands emerging in the \u201990s and 2000s, using White Oak denim became a way to tap into the legacy of the U.S. textile industry and align themselves with Levi\u2019s storied origins<\/a>. Incorporating White Oak selvedge signaled a dedication to craftsmanship, authenticity, and heritage. For consumers, wearing it wasn\u2019t just about quality\u2014it was a subtle badge of clout. While Levi\u2019s remained the No. 1 customer of White Oak selvedge until its closure, the plant produced large volumes for small brands like Tellason and Raleigh Denim.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tImage from \u201cAmerican Denim\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhereas other manufacturers of the same size and in the same categories have focused more on production and less on marketing and media, Sharkey said White Oak was keenly aware of its significance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo White Oak\u2019s credit, they did a good job of telling their story and connecting their cloth to cultural moments in music and art,\u201d Sharkey said. \u201cThey allowed the spotlight and told this great American textile town story where every house around that factory was owned by Cone, and everybody who lived there worked there. It is an incredible story that ran for a very long time and is the legacy of multigenerational families that work there as well. I think a big part of their storytelling, and their ability to capture that story is to let others tell it and share it.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSharkey revisited the empty and vacated facility in February 2018 and again in 2022 to document how Evan Morrison continues White Oak\u2019s tradition of producing selvedge denim on old Draper X-3 looms. The co-owner of Hudson\u2019s Hill, a Greensboro-based American general store, helped formalize the establishment of White Oak Legacy Foundation in 2020. The following year, he built the production arm of the non-profit organization, which has since spun off, and begun weaving narrow shuttle denim on Draper X-3 looms at the White Oak plant under the name Proximity Manufacturing Company. The name is a nod to Proximity Cotton Mills, the first denim mill founded by the Cone brothers in 1895.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tImage from \u201cAmerican Denim\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSharkey\u2019s first visit to White Oak was in 2016 when he directed a commercial for Portland, Ore.-based Chrome Industries. The performance apparel and accessory brand was using the mill\u2019s Dyneema <\/a>fabrics. That fall, he opened Bleacher Critic, a retail store in Petaluma, Calif. with a strong focus on \u201cMade in USA\u201d brands like Tellason Denim, the selvedge denim brand that produces jeans in San Franscisco. \u201cWe knew that we weren\u2019t going to be 100 percent \u2018Made in USA\u2019 because the price threshold for that would not reach our customer. But we wanted to be a store in our community and help people on price per wear and all those things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThrough his \u201cMade in USA\u201d network, Sharkey caught wind in the summer of 2017 that there was a strong possibility that then-owner Platinum Equity was planning to close White Oak. Sharkey got in touch with the people he had worked with on that shoot back in early 2016 and told them, \u201cI\u2019ve heard through the grapevine that you guys are going to close White Oak. This place is such an important part of both global and American textile history, and I\u2019d like to come and photograph the factory while it\u2019s still operating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tITG followed up in the fall, requiring photographers to send in proposals for submission. The company planned to choose one local photographer and one non-local photographer to photograph the plant\u2019s final days. Sharkey was selected as the non-local. During the second week of December 2017, he was escorted around the White Oak property to photograph the facility and some employees.<\/p>\n

\n\tSharkey recalls being struck by the unexpectedly uplifting atmosphere at White Oak during that time\u2014something he found difficult to fully comprehend. \u201cI would have expected the employees to be so much more crushed knowing that a week after I was taking photos, the looms would be silent and the electricity would be turned off,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody I talked to was still very jovial about their experiences there, and happy to share their story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tImage from \u201cAmerican Denim\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSharkey recalls meeting with Frank, a weaver at White Oak for 61 years and his ambivalence about the day. \u201cHe had on his jumpsuit just like any other day at work\u2026 Punching in, punching out,\u201d Sharkey said. \u201cMaybe the workers were just trying to go about their work week and process the closure later. Everyone was kind, thoughtful and respectful, but there was a part of me also wanting to soak it up because knew the gravity of the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSharkey edited 900-plus images to 200 images for the book<\/a>. He chose to use a film camera, embracing an analog process that mirrors the traditional craftsmanship of Draper X-3<\/a> looms. Sharkey said the book serves not only as a photo essay on White Oak\u2019s role in building the U.S. denim industry but also as a reminder of the urgency to maintain the country\u2019s denim expertise and know-how.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRight now, we still have a population that can respond, and there are enough people that are still relatively young enough to teach younger generations,\u201d he said. \u201cIf companies get behind this \u201cMade in USA\u201d movement, there\u2019s still like some easy resources to tap, whereas if, if they wait another 30 or 40 years, a lot of this institutional knowledge is gone, and it would have to be entirely rethought, if not entirely robotic by then.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis article was published in SJ Denim\u2019s \u201cMade in America\u201d issue. Click here<\/a> to read more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAmerican Denim: The Supposed Final Days and Resurgence of a Manufacturing Icon\u201d aims to preserve the legacy of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[6342,3444,168758,77,16,15,120789],"class_list":{"0":"post-517740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-book","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-cone-denim","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-white-oak"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115413824035073669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}