The Denim Brand Making a Business of Upcycling

Late in August, Anna Foster is standing in front of me in her studio in Dalston, London contemplating the future of a pile of old jeans. “This could be a boyfriend or a flare,” says the founder and creative director of upcycled denim brand E.L.V. Denim, picking up a pair of jeans that’s been neatly labelled with a complicated code of letters and numbers indicating key measurements and quality attributes.

The code reflects a carefully…