From landfill to London Fashion Week: meet E.L.V. Denim, the brand that wants your old jeans

Finding The One can be an onerous, years-long hunt. There will be endless failed matches and optimism that leads to disappointment. Then one day you’ll be browsing in a shop and see them folded unassumingly in a pile. You’ll try them on and know: these are mine. But why is it so hard for women to find the perfect pair of jeans?

Anna Foster, the founder of E.L.V. Denim, can explain. “We’ve been taking a shape that was designed as workwear for a man and trying to fit it on a woman,” she says. “And actually, it doesn’t work. Women’s bodies are much more circular, they have curves and waists and hips that aren’t necessarily in proportion for jeans.”