G-Star Raw was founded in 1989 by Jos van Tilburg as a Dutch jeans company.
The brand began in the Netherlands and became known for treating denim as a design material rather than only as traditional workwear. Its collections have included raw and untreated denim, along with sharply constructed jeans and utility-inspired garments.
The word “Raw” in the brand name points to raw denim, which is denim that has not undergone the extensive washing and finishing commonly applied to ready-to-wear jeans. Raw denim is often valued for developing personal fading patterns through wear.
G-Star Raw is sometimes mistaken for a Japanese selvedge specialist because of its technical denim reputation, but its origin is Dutch. It is also distinct from Diesel, the Italian brand founded by Renzo Rosso.