PARIS, June 5 — In her book Unraveled — The Life and Death of a Garment, published at the beginning of June, Maxine Bedat charts the journey of a pair of jeans, from a cotton farm in Texas to Amazon’s warehouses via sewing workshops in Bangladesh.

It offers a timely opportunity to take a closer look at one of the most polluting items in our closets — an item that also remains one of the most-worn garments in the world.

Do you know how many pairs of jeans are in your closet? Do you have any idea where they were made? And how many kilometres they travelled before landing in your closet?

Although a handful of brands are now favouring responsible materials, local production, and dyes and washes that consume less water and are less harmful to the planet, jeans are still one of the most polluting products in the world.

The proof, in numbers: