Denim Tears is the brand designer Tremaine Emory founded in 2019. Its logo, the Cotton Wreath, refers to cotton as a crop tied to slavery in the United States. The idea behind the brand is to use clothing, starting with denim, which is cotton, to tell African American history.
Its first collection came out to coincide with the 400th anniversary of slavery in the United States. Since then it has worked with Levi's, Converse, Dior and UGG, and its sweatshirts printed with the wreath have become one of the most recognisable streetwear pieces around. Here's who is behind it, what the logo means and the brand's milestones, each one checked.
Who is Tremaine Emory
Tremaine Emory was born in Atlanta and grew up in Jamaica, a neighbourhood in Queens, New York. Before Denim Tears he had a long career behind the scenes in fashion:
- In 2010 he moved to London to work with Marc Jacobs.
- He co-founded No Vacancy Inn with his partner Acyde, a collective with a radio show, DJ sets, parties and pop-ups.
- He was art and brand director at Stüssy.
- Between 2016 and 2018 he was a creative consultant and brand director for Kanye West.
- In February 2022 he became Supreme's first creative director, a role he left in August 2023 after disagreements with its founder, James Jebbia.
He has also worked closely with friends such as Frank Ocean, Virgil Abloh and Tom Sachs. That network partly explains why such a young brand got into museums and houses like Dior so quickly.
What does Denim Tears mean
The name joins two words: denim, the jeans fabric, which is cotton, and tears. The reading is direct: the cotton that ended up as clothing was grown through the forced labour of enslaved people in the American South. The brand sets out to tell that story and get people asking about it.
The Denim Tears logo: the cotton wreath
The brand's symbol is the Cotton Wreath, a wreath made of cotton flowers. Emory was inspired by a cotton wreath he saw on the Instagram of artist Kara Walker, whose work deals precisely with slavery and racial violence.
The white it's usually printed in has its own story. During production of the first Levi's collaboration, a printer at Levi's Eureka lab in San Francisco malfunctioned and printed only the white base layer. That "ghostly" white look went down well and stuck.
Today the wreath is repeated all over the piece on jeans, sweatshirts, sweatpants and shorts. It's what makes a Denim Tears piece recognisable from several metres away.
Denim Tears milestones, verified
We went through the brand's milestones and kept only the ones that can be checked against reliable sources:
- 2019: Denim Tears launches, with a first collection about the history of cotton and slavery in the United States.
- January 2020: collaboration with Levi's. A Trucker jacket, 501 jeans and a patchwork hat called the Plantation Hat, all with cotton wreaths and made with denim from Levi's Authorized Vintage programme. The video campaign was shot by Emory's father.
- October 2020: a Chuck 70 with Converse in red, black and green, featuring the flag from David Hammons' artwork African-American Flag. It launched alongside graphics from the organisation For Freedoms to encourage people to vote in that year's election.
- September 2021: New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art includes Denim Tears pieces (Levi's jeans and jacket with chain-stitch embroidery and the Tyson Beckford jumper) in the exhibition "In America", dedicated to American fashion.
- December 2022: Dior presents "Dior Tears", a capsule with Emory, at its men's pre-fall 2023 show in Giza, beside the pyramids.
- Collaboration with Dr. Martens: 1460 boots and loafers nodding to the "Union Black" flag by British painter Chris Ofili, which reworks the Union Jack in Pan-African colours.
- Autumn 2026: Emory's first solo exhibition, "Denim Tears from the Pool of Black Genius", at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia, open until 11 January 2027.
By the way, if you've read elsewhere that Denim Tears showed at Paris Fashion Week in 2021 or had its own exhibition at the Met in 2022, we haven't found sources to confirm either. The Met connection was the inclusion of pieces in "In America", in 2021.
The Cotton Wreath pieces
Beyond the collaborations, the brand's everyday output is its fleece pieces with the wreath printed all over. They're the ones you see most on the street and the ones we stock at Newcop.
Sweatshirts
The crew-neck sweatshirt is the most recognisable piece. There's the Cotton Wreath Sweatshirt Grey and the Cotton Wreath Sweatshirt Pink. If you prefer a hood and something more low-key, the Cotton Wreath Hoodie Black Monochrome has the wreaths in black on black.
Sweatpants
Same print, in trouser form. The Cotton Wreath Sweatpants Grey and the Cotton Wreath Sweatpants Black are the easiest to wear. If you pair them with the matching sweatshirt, keep the rest of the outfit simple.
Shorts
For warmer weather there are shorts with the same print, like the Cotton Wreath Shorts Pink.
How to wear Denim Tears
The print already does a lot, so what works is letting the wreath be the only thing that stands out:
- Grey sweatshirt with straight-leg jeans and white trainers, like Nike Air Force 1.
- Black monochrome hoodie with black trousers and black adidas Samba.
- Pink shorts with a plain white or grey T-shirt and light low-top trainers.
Avoid pairing the wreath with another printed piece. It loses its impact.
Where to buy Denim Tears
You can see everything we have available in the Denim Tears collection. Everything is 100% authentic. To see it in person, drop into our stores in Madrid (Calle de Tetuán 16), Barcelona (Carrer de la Canuda 37) and Paris (19 rue du Temple). And if you're into streetwear with a story behind it, take a look at our Fear of God Essentials guide too.
