DENHAMTHEJEANMAKER.COM IS LIVE

We've reformatted our site. Well, for the first time really but give us a break, we're only a year old. Sadly now, there'll be precious little reason to visit us again here at the blog. Except maybe for nostalgia's sake. Happily, the new site is pretty much a fancy blog. Real fancy compared to what you may have come to expect from us online up to now.

CLICK HERE to hop over to the new site. Where each card reveals a story which represents one facet of what we work on around here. Shuffle the deck and flip through the collections, the garment library, the studio and shops, press reports and witness the emergence of a Cutter´s Council... Like our original blog, its designed in time with no beginning nor end, through resourceful innovation and experimentation. It´s a decorated blog. A tailor-made homepage. We hope to fascinate but are equally prepared to frustrate.

NOTE: If you've visited our main URL before, you might need to "empty cache" (whatever that means) to get it to load the first time.

COLLUSION: Denham and EnPlus

WORKING TOGETHER IN SECRET

The official introduction of the EnPlus/Denham Collusion Series marks the project coming out of months of secret meetings and into the winter light of Amsterdam in December. The series includes the 495 Japanese Dry Selvedge, the 459 American Standard and the Revised Staple White Tee. Each of the three represents a meeting of the minds of EnPlus and Denham.


Malvin Wix, Gee Schmidt and Edson Sabajao AKA Patta have a proven track-record of identifying, participating-in, filtering and combining style influences with a level of distinction and individuality that can only be born from lifetimes fully submersed in the unpredictable but ultimately harmonious mix of expressive cultures which have been capturing their imaginations since they were kids.

The combined vision they've manifested within their existing Patta concept has received international respect deriving as much from the trio's personal integrity as it does from the carefully curated rare sneaker assortment for which the store is world renowned. Patta's selection has a reputation for flair, taste, cool, authenticity and fun and the service culture the team have nurtured in the shop has always reflected these exact same values.


STYLE & CULTURE DETECTION AT PRECINCT 5

But that's Patta. Their new shop Precinct 5 which opens next week on December 10th sits within a retired Amsterdam police station (the former 5th precinct) and represents a completely new step in their entrepreneurial evolution and their new product design platform.

WHAT IS ENPLUS [&PLUS]?

EnPlus is now emerging as the product-based expression of this next evolutionary stage. The crew approached Denham to collude on an inaugural program of co-branded items in honor of the birth of their new shop and the emergence of their new brand.

The concept includes two equally pure approaches to the iconic 5-pocket along with the kind of fresh white tee shirt we used to scoop-up in double packs, crack open and wear right off the card, fold lines and all.

495 JAPANESE DRY SELVEDGE

Named for the address of the Denham store in Amsterdam, the premium edition is crafted in 22-dip Japanese narrow-loom selvedge and features anodized trumpet-shank buttons on the fly. Other details like the full waistband embroidery; "Honorable Men Go With Honorable Men,", the high gloss black leather waistband label with EnPlus emboss, black twill interior fly taping and interior pocketbag imprint are all common to both denim styles.


459 AMERICAN STANDARD

Named for the new address of the Precinct Five store, the core edition is made from classic 8-dip American denim and features a traditional button fly. The other details like the full waistband embroidery; "Honorable Men Go With Honorable Men,", the high gloss black leather waistband label with EnPlus emboss, black twill interior fly taping and interior pocketbag imprint are all present here too.


CUFF WIDTH AS THE NEW GOLDEN RATIO

The project has been characterized by an positivistic realness embodied by Wix, Gee and Edson. Jean culture attracts purism like knees attract grass-stains but there are endless types of purism when it comes to denim. In the case of the EnPlus crew one core element of the blue jean design dogma is the all-important cuff with. The discussion surrounding the ideal cuff width was long, rigerous and exacting. For those of us on the Denham team it was an unexpected chance to witness a spin on jean oriented passion that was entirely new. Even Jason with decades of denim experience hadn't been exposed to this particular orientation before.


WHYCUFF JEAN ?

The cuff matters because the kicks matter. Stupid. Why else? Jeans need to look good with your kicks, or the other way around. High top, low top, mid, padded leather, unlined canvas... Getting that key measurement to work with 'em all is no mean trick.



2PACK TEE

Reaching back to the days when we would crack open a 2-pack of white tee shirts with the broad self-satisfied grin of guys that can put off the laundry for another weekend, the Collusion tee shirts are offered two-at-a-time in a subtle slub-jersey and feature articulated lower hem-drop creating shirt tails that are part of DENHAM's own tee signature launching within their Spring 2010 assortment.



THEIR PLACE OR OURS

The three styles in the Collusion series are offered only at the new PRECINCT FIVE shop opening December 10th, and starting at the same time they will also be presented in our own Amsterdam store on the Pinsengracht.

STITCHER ACADEMY WARRANTS ISSUED

"Give a man a fish he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll never need to settle for anything less than the perfect fit,"



The twins from Jeanspaleis (and DNA and Accent Circonflexe) stormed the gate and wouldn't leave until they had extracted some of Jason's basic jeanscraft gnosis. A quasi-impromptu sewing college commenced and 24 intensive hours later the guys were issued the first two Academy Warrants confirming them as qualified jean seamsters.


Welcome to the Seamsters Union gentlemen. Now where the hell is Jimmy Hoffa?

BEING PART OF IT PART 2

After promising to minimize the whole celebrity thing, we'll need to amend the contract just this once. Forgive us and consider this a simple extension of the previous post.

Anyway, we'll keep it short. It was a big week for the crew at the studio. Nigel Cabourn and Drew Holmes were with us for a few days fresh from the opening of their new Army Gym concept in Japan. The fact Nigel's 40 year commitment to quality and stubburn-as-hell personal design ethic is an inspiration to us will come as no surprise.


As if that weren't enough (and it really would have been), G-Star's legendary Pierre Morisset walked through the door. A magic moment and a spontaneous meeting-of-the-minds ensued. If the rest of us need to wear vintage Elwoods and Budgie Jackets for a while keep the spark of that energy alive in the studio then, damn it, that's what we'll do. Whatever it takes.

TO BE A PART OF IT

We're pretty determined to resist celebrity postings here. We're trying to maintain a basic focus on product. -Its inspiration, design, research and development. So forgive us for exhibiting our own case of star-struck syndrome on this one.

But the fact is that we're daily motivated by the possibility that the work we do and the stuff we create could play some small part in the grand historical trajectory of jeanscraft and utility tailoring itself. That's why we were so stoked when Adriano Goldschmidt and Francois Girbaud elected to spend some time in our world during the first L.O.C.K. event during Bread & Butter in Berlin.

As they did for anyone who shares our obsessions, these gentlemen set the pace from the very moment the appeared on the landscape of denim design and they continue to represent the gold-standard within our tradition. The idea that our work turned their heads even briefly is humbling. So humbling in fact we began to think we'd imagined it until the folks at Bread & Butter published their photograph of the occasion in their recap this week.

Since all this happened Adriano has also gifted Jason with a copy of a legendary artifact from earlier days. Jason had seen a group photo of The Genius Group posted on the wall at one of our Italian development partners. The image features some legendary young faces with Adriano and Renzo Rosso leading the charge but with the list of luminaries extending much much further.

His gift is now in our Denham Garment Library archive. Check it out and see how many you can name.

POLISHING UP OUR GRADES

The first Fall deliveries have been in long enough now that it's been possible to put around 4 weeks of straight wear on the new straight-legs. The classic 5-pocket GRADE models arrived and at least one pair was put to quick use. Summer was waning but there was one last chance to try a near mythical 70's era hippy wash technique. Call it the Hippy Dippy..., -Well maybe.

Simple and probably not overly hygienic since soap is only applied directly to the outside surface, but hell if you scrub enough and rinse enough it should be fresher coming out than when it went in. Since the GRADE is a new style the window of opportunity to put the full 6-months worth of miles on them before washing was restricted. But the model is also a heritage-design and benefits a little from shrink-back once it's stretched out in the first few weeks. Not exactly shrink-to-fit. More like a shot of botox or a modest tuck to get things back closer to where they started.



We chose the South of France for the experiment. It's a dirty job but somebody had to try it.

JUDGE A BOOK BY IT'S COVER

We are pleased to issue volume 2 in a long running series of books that record each collection as a chapter in our history. Lest we not forget our journey.

An often likable and some say collectible item, the book is foremost a product guide to share the work and help spread the word with our stores and sales teams. A few books in very limited numbers are held back for purchase in the Denham store.

Continuing our letter of intent, we've approached the craft of book design with a modicum of tradition. The result is a considered study of the accepted process of book making,

challenging the time-honored belief that "a book should not be judged by it's cover".

In this instance, we feel it should.

Although we've temporarily published the contents online at the brilliant issuu.com,

Open publication - Free publishing - More the jeanmaker

our preference for a printed book remains unaltered. Adding a timeless spine of influence to your bookshelf.

But conventional book binding has been triumphantly destroyed with the help of a circular saw. We've hacked at the contents to create a double-front cover. Unconventional, slightly brutal, but ultimately functional:

Book 1 neatly contains a collection overview

Book 2 includes press releases, interviews, dedications and photos. As well as a sub-section showing a few pieces from our library of divine revelation: the DENHAM GARMENT LIBRARY.

This is however no easy objective. To avoid the pages 'fanning out' the books are first printed, glued and bound, before each book is half-folded, then sawn-off by hand with a spine-chilling razor sharp blade. Aimed with pin-point precision and taking care to avoid the inevitable extended pinky finger. Thankfully no fingers were lost in the making of these books.

An exercise in cutting-edge craftsmanship from our print engineer.

FIRES OF THE EAST & WEST

Whether fighting the flames in the East or the West, there was a time when Utility was Luxury

We said at one point that we don't collect in order to covet. The greed of pure selfish possession would probably embarrass us a bit. We do collect. As a team and as individuals we've been using archival garments as silent-but-effective personal tutors for a long time and the excitement only increases.

Last week we found a pair of antique Japanese fireman's trousers. When they first caught our eye they looked familiar somehow (socrates said we experience a sensation of "rightness" during the acquisition of knowledge because our understanding awakens awareness of divine patterns previously dormant in our souls... -but none of us paid that much attention in class). Anyway, these trousers awakened awareness of something.

It only took another minute or so to remember we owned another pair of work pants believed to be turn-of-the-century fireman's trousers...   -Only these came to us by way of Britain. They're one of the studio's favorites. Can't Bust 'Em.

Compare the two and it's very clear which is from the East and which is from the West. But adjust your perception just a little and the similarities start appearing. Both are crafted from extremely rugged black selvedge fabric. Both show the effect of the natural twist associated with classic denim workwear.

Turn them both over and the story continues.

Both designs utilize a functional cinch-back. The western variation employing a buckle and the eastern version using a full sash belt wrapped and tied toward the center-front.  Both cinches attached in nearly the same location with rugged stitch work just to the right and left of the center-back.

Both pairs feature cuff-wear on the same leg. The Can't Bust 'Em specimens have been patched with wool, the Japanese pair has yet to be repaired.

Both pairs use natural plain-weave muslin elements to apply branding. The Can't Bust 'Em pair brands the outside, the Japanese labeling is internal.

Use of the softer muslin extends into the internal waistband treatments on both, though the Can't Bust Em's uses a yarn-dyed stripe/dot fabric. Both use a soft secondary fabric for edging and fly-facings. Brushed moleskin in the case of the Cant' Bust "Em's, and a softer finer indigo-dyed twill on the Japanese design.

Both feature strong, generously proportioned functional front pockets. The western pair also feature back pockets (a jeanswear innovation).

Hey, all this commitment to quality almost verges on luxury by the standards of the day. But we guess whether guys were fighting fires in Great Britain or Japan, utility would have been the real luxury.

If you've gotten this far down this posting, God bless your patience. We're just crazy for this stuff. Sue us. But what's more important is what we do with it. And it's this kind of inquiry that has inspired our commitment to our own modest array of construction features. In our case it includes:
> Japanese Selvedge
> Leather Rivet-Saddles
> Fully Bound Internal Flies
> 7-Point Anatomical Hip-Pockets
> Darted Articulation
> Fully Tailored 3xChambray Waistbands

... -and so on. But to see what we mean or when and where we employ these standards you'll need to come hangout with us.

JUST A BUTTON PART TWO

[part one here]

When the Product was the Message

Our research has been taking us allover the place this season. Lucky us. Sessioning with a Russian & US military uniform expert in Berlin, digging through the archive of an RAF & Royal Navy collector outside Paris... In an odd twist entering the inner-sanctum of a Tokyo collector specializing in turn-of-the-century US western and workwear only later to get the down-low on Japanese textiles from an American in Brooklyn (passion for garment history effectively folding the map pressing the East right up against the West). During these exploits we've curated some incredible new research material for the DGL.

On the Button
A natural part of our design focus is the issue of utility. We consider denim and the related world of workwear to fall into the realm of Utility Tailoring. As such the development of very fundemental utilitrarian garment compenents provides endless fascination and inspiration. It allows us all here at Denham and any other label sharing this ambition to push things forward.

You can't get much more fundamental than a button. Our research recently reminded us of a time when utility was the point, and the product was the message.

Besides pushing performance in the area of durability, evolving concepts like the shank-assembly and split-ring attachement, buttons from the first golden era of workwear design spelled-out their intentions right down at the detail level. They litterally announced their design objectives.

This was the case whether they were aiming to wear well like anthracite, be strong & reliable, even as strong as granite or the rock of gibraltar.

If the intention was to ensure you'd never ripum (or alternatively be rip proof), they'd deliver sure service, offer a true fit, have the brand take responsibility to watch the wear, load nuff stuff into the construction so you could think of them as ironalls instead of overalls... -if they made the effort to sanforize or use 8 oz shrunk, then they engraved or embossed that promise where it couldn't be forgotten. Deep into the product. Somewhere along the line, well after this period, the "message" became so disassociated from the product that the marketing took on a life entirely of its own. But these examples are from before all the extravagant aspirational lifestyle claims and media hype, when product and message were less detached from one another. Simpler times we guess.

Not to mention the obvious attention to balancing tradition with invention (our own modest obsession), using a traditional button but upgrading the durability by exchanging the convention of weak threads for inventive steel rings. Given all this its a daunting task to try and push it even further forward but we've got resources now they didn't have back. Maybe only little things, like investing in solid castings where they were restricted to hollow two-part plus bent-wire assemblies. Every little step contributes something and the more history we experience the more we're inspired to keep pushing.

UNCONVENTIONAL & TRADITIONAL: BROOKLYN

We don't wrestle with internal demons around here too much. Why are we here? What's it all about? We get to spend more time making than thinking. But if we ever did need reassurance it's easy to find in Brooklyn.


UNCONVENTIONAL CRAFT AT THE KDU
David Gensler, Aerosyn-Lex and Portia Wells put some time aside to show us what they've been up to. Here's where we should say that these folks navigate within the realms of creative strategists and denizens of new design. As such they have plenty of cool "clients" (including a couple denim brands), but our connection to this passionate posse is not professional. It's cultural. Besides they have enough clients and we don't use agencies.



Peek through their Brooklyn porthole and you're looking into an intense mix of activities, values and influences. We were particularly inspired by the crazy attention to fabric-development within their own SvSv collection where they employ pure musk ox qiviuk among other things . We were also floored by our first real-life exposure to their unbelievable collection of antique tailor's shears... it's reassuring to know we're getting help salvaging and caring for these priceless forbearers of our shared tradition.

True to the notion that we need to share this tradition even as we push it forward, they honored the ethic more deeply as we parted ways by entrusting us with the first pair of shears they ever acquired. Judging by the shape and the ornate scabbard they maybe more suitable for an obscure martial-art than for garment-making, but the workmanship is insane.

WORSHIPING TRADITION WITH AN EXPERT
It's a really good day when you can bracket it with learning on both ends. Destroy a little convention at breakfast, worship a little tradition before lunch.

From chewing the fat with Gensler and crew in the morning, the afternoon offered a chance to meditate among a mind-boggling and spirit-moving range indigo drenched folk textiles from Japan as well as Korea and India. Keeper of both the relics and the knowledge, Stephen Sczcepanek, deepened our understanding and appreciation of these traditions well beyond our expectations, given the brief couple of hours we spent with him.


He shared new specimens like ultra-delicate Korean wrapping cloth, deeply patinaed Japanese pawnshop paper, wisteria yarns gathered from jungle vines to be spliced together by hand (not "spun") and woven into one of the rarest fabrics in the world. We're not kidding.

And, of course, there was a tonal kaleidoscope of indigo infused Boro specimens.

DAZED

Thanks very much to the stand-up folks over at Dazed & Confused for helping spread the word this week.

THE GARMENT WORKER

A bronze tailor by Judith Weller gifted to the City of New York in 1984 signifying a gateway to Fashion Avenue.


That much at least is indicated on the plaque. But how he got his hands on our jeans is beyond us, we don't even have distribution in the States. From the look of it we assumed he was practicing the spiral stitch technique for an updated darn-type repair.

YANK-EE INGENUITY

Normally when we talk about Yankee Ingenuity we're talking about our shared tradition of making inventive utilitarian improvements to denim and workwear. But this is a whole different take on getting yankee.



Thanks to facebook, I'm slightly ashamed to admit, there are some cool folks digging in the archives for us. Most of their contributions are tangible and end up as specimens in in the DENHAM GARMENT LIBRARY. This one isn't and we've got almost no reason to post it except that it makes us really really smile. To this day denim trends and big marketing concepts are still fickle mistresses, so even now we're not laughing at it. We're laughing with it.

BLUESPOKE

A friend of ours is getting married. We'll leave him his privacy but we thought the project we helped him with might provide some council for other folks investigating bespoke.


His idea was to create a fully tailored wedding suit using our selvedge denim. Cool enough.


Whether he anticipated this or not, his concept essentially sets up a glorious collision between two giants of menswear tradition. Beau Brummel and Jacob Davis. The former considered the father of modern suiting and a legendary arbiter of style. The later being the crazy utility tailor and sometime tinker who risked ridicule by slamming machine-rivets into work pants creating the archetypal blue jean.



We've got an addiction to both around here so the request captured our imaginations. We suggested our fabric be crafted into suiting by New Tailor, with ateliers here in Amsterdam and Utrecht. They work in consort with a team of artisans on Savile Row in Mayfair, former stomping ground of the original "Beau" mentioned above.


We were also honored to be the last stop for the finished suit. Jason attached the (kissing) and other buttons here at the studio where our denim fabric was re-introduced to our signature findings in the final stretch of the suit's completion.

THEN WE TAKE BERLIN

Leonard Cohen wrote it. The Antecedents reworked it. Last week, we lived it.


Honestly we hope these posts are read by folks other than industry types, so for the benefit of those who wear jeans for love instead of selling them for money we'll provide a lightnening-fast account of Bread & Butter.

Here goes:


A. Big giant trade show in Berlin. B. Jeanmakers set-up. C. Store buyers visit. D. Wares are shown. E. Flesh is pressed. F. Final consumers are left almost entirely out of the equation which is a damn shame really.



This season the organizers of the show in Berlin created a much needed area for what they described as Labels of Common Kin, or L.O.C.K. Among other characatersisticss the brands housed in the space were meant to represent "substantial craftsmanship". We were invited and we were pleased to be in such good company. This is supposed to be our blog but we'll extend a shout-out to folks like England's Nigel Cabourn, Montreal's Naked & Famous and Ibara city in Okayama's PH7 all whose work was inspiring.


Given the industry focus of these escepades we're left with slightly mixed feelings. We want to pay as much attention to the craft, detail and innovation of the presentation as we do on the product but we're mildly bummed that it's not something everyone gets to see. To ease the pain a little we extended our store-concept as the atmoshpere of the booth so your visit with us in Amsterdam should hopefully have the same vibe.

But, it's not a store, it's a trade-show. So it goes up in a matter of days and the process looks a bit like the impressions we've provided here.

SAME AT IS NEVER WAS

Feeding our heads. In Berlin and at home. Anywhere there's wifi or a modem.

During Bread & Butter we also stuffed most of the content of our DGL archive into a bank of four video-goggles to allow guests to share in the inspiration. One pair was stolen from the exhibit actually, but whoever snagged it forgot to take the converter so we're afraid both sides ended up stymied by the caper.



The fact you can buy technology only recently limited to cyberpunk romps like Strange Days and Johnny Mnemonic in the electronics shop at the airport doesn't make us feel old, it makes us feel lucky.



As readers of our postings here will already know, we host a separate online environment to share the same archive more broadly. Help yourself here.

COLD COLD WATER

Passion of ownership. Like the scene in Quadrophenia when the Pete Townshend character as just washed his jeans in the bath. A great moment in cinema and a cool reminder of the boyish pride we're allowed to take in maintaining stuff in the right way.


For us the right way goes easy on the shrink effect since skin tight, at least on men's jeans, isn't what we're after. But washing your jeans the right way absolutely brings them to life, magnifies character and personalizes the fit. Ali had worn his long enough that they were nearly able to walk around on their own, and that's about the minimum time to wait before washing if you want to generate the best character lines and natural color contrasts afterwards.



Here's our advice. It's easy: 1. Cold water with natural soap powder. 2. Invert your jeans and slide them in. 3. Hand wash and enjoy the process, work the fabric, swish 'em around, exercise a little finesse. 4. Dump the soapy/dirty wash-water and reload with another helping of cold cold water as a rinse. 5. Rinse the same way you washed. 6. Handwork the jeans as they're submersed. 7. Pull 'em out, wring them out, turn them back the right-side-out and hang them vertically to dry. 8. -But before you walk away and let science, nature and evaporation do their thing, take one more pass at handworking the damp jeans into shape. Work through the seams and creases, shape the legs and get 'em expressing the attitude you like. 9. Then walk away and let nature take its course.

OR... Follow the technique of Sir Bob of Butcher of Blue (and Denham) who puts even more punk into the process. Check it out HERE

HOME REPAIR

The fact good jeans are an investment is dumb-obvious. If you're reading this blog, you already know that. The fact that there are so many ways to look after that investment, with so many different possible results, is partly what makes denim culture such a kick-in-the-pants.

About five years ago, James Harlan came across an abandoned shack near the Dan River above Greensboro. Instead of South Carolina ginseng Harlan found himself rooting through a tobacco sharecropper's trash and hauling home a pile of worn-out denim covered with wasps' nests....

The Harlan Find was commemorated in the A-Life designed mini catalog, FOUND. It's a remarkable thing. Among other things it managed to use pictures to teach a particularly dignified approach to home-repair. It's a technique we were already familiar with having examined it as it appears on specimens in the DENHAM GARMENT LIBRARY.



You could call it a "darn-type" and it uses a spiral stitch and backside patch to repair wear areas with a forthright rural dignity. We use a machine 'cuz we have one but it's based on a hand-stitch technique.

Jason managed to grind through portions of the heel cuff roll on his Tapers (remember, a couple of the guys ran them 9 months straight without a break), and took the opportunity to demonstrate the process here in the atelier.


Not as flashy and trashy as an LA rock-star. -But different strokes for different folks. We like both extremes depending on the mood. More important is that the TAKING CARE ethos makes living in any pair of premium-quality jeans a dynamic and one-of-a-kind experience. Hell yeah.

ONE KILO MELTON

We told the story of the 1 Kilo Melton "Medic" style for men which will be landing here as part of the new Fall collection. At some point it occurred to us that 100 pieces of 10cm x 10cm would constitute 1sqm of fabric. It also occurred to us that if we placed those 100 pieces all on top of each other, it would make a pretty thick and soft stack of melton. And finally, that this stack would weigh the same kilo of the original 1sqm piece.

So we tried it.


This gives some impression of the quality's substance and character.



We also keep telling the story of our regular use of traditional garments as starting-off points for design from our own archive, the DENHAM GARMENT LIBRARY. On a recent trip abroad we stumbled on a gorgeous men's battle-dress or "Ike" jacket that reminded us why we chose this melton in the first place.


A design-standard for the British Royal Navy, this specimen carries all of the original tag documentation attached via a lead seal (still intact) indicating that it is to be used as the design-reference for tailors and producers who were expected to create this style for serviceman. This is an essentially a 3-dimensional design file issued by the British Admiralty. It also bears the names, dates and signatures of those who had "signed it out" (like a library book) in order to ensure design consistency and reliable quality. The piece was issued by the Admiralty in 1946.


Combine the sheer quality of the fabrication with the authenticity of an original archive and you've created exactly the right platform from which to progress your own designs forward. That's how we see it anyway.


For Fall the journey that started with these ideas resulted in a range of styles in both the men's and women's collections. Each model is built with as much combined style, attitude and integrity as we could muster and all of it will be here before we know it.

3-WAY COLLISION

We promised we'd start leaking out some love stories for Fall 2009 since it'll be delivering in the not-too-distant future (and because we're stoked about the progress it represents and we can't wait to start banging our pots and pans).

We go on and on about the DENHAM GARMENT LIBRARY and the crucial importance of an archive. You can't build something strong on a weak foundation and, for us, the archive and the combined tradition and craftsmanship it teaches us represents that foundation.

But we're also not about managing the reproduction of one-to-one replicas of old garments. We readily confess our deep admiration for many of the brands who are busy with that idea in the emerging "Otaku" scene because some of them demonstrate great taste and good quality, but the direct approach isn't exactly our bag.


We'd prefer to try and pick up where our predecessors and contemporaries may have left off and try to push things forward.

Arriving in the Fall collection is the new CUSTOM jean and it's a good example of this ambition. Taking inspiration from German field pants of the 1930's blended with detailing from American hunting pants from the 50's and new ideas from contemporary wintersport designs, the CUSTOM strives to create progression by folding diverse influences together into a rugged modern jean model for this millennium.

GARMENTS FROM TENT FABRIC

Below we posted a piece about our upcoming exhibition of the SPY BORO series at Bread & Butter Berlin.

The girls weren't the only ones cutting into found fabrics and repurposing them into new designs. After all, that's supposed to be the mantra around here. Worship Tradition, Destroy Convention.



One of the legends of the birth of modern jeanscraft is the story about American workwear tailors crafting pants out of the tough fabric intended for tents during the Gold Rush and the expansion West. There are other stories but the central notion of making clothing from fabric intended for temporary housing is what inspired this other exercise in re-purposing to be dislayed in Berlin.


Also developed as a limited edition for Spring 2010 the MEDIC INTEL employs reclaimed 3-Layer Gore-Tex Dutch Marine "bivouac" sleeping-shells which were taken apart in order to create a variation on the new 1KILO MELTON MEDIC which is soon landing in shops for Fall.

Like the Gold Rush canvas tents before them, the Dutch Marine Bivouacs contain all the rugged fabric-features required to produce a tough utlity garment and the MEDIC model provided the right tailored starting-point.



The construction introduces new ideas like a buttonhole-free buttoning closure and the employment of a biker's bi-swing action back as well as traditional techniques like felled seams...

Gore insists on seam-taping but we won ourselves a little creative latitude by using repurposed material (in other words we did it without asking). In fact, the traces of the original taped-seam assembly are visible within our reconstruction, the ghost of the fabric's first life showing through.


(NOTE: This is a use of Gore-Tex fabric that didn't go through the usual channels and we're still not sure how you "market" a jacket with this feature when it wasn't a sanctioned Gore project but we assume we'll find out soon enough)

Also like the Boro Spy jackets, these won't be in front of consumers until Spring 2010 (sorry about that), but they will be on show earlier at July's Bread & Butter event.

SOMETHING BORO'D

Despite the promise of her family name, Barbera can't rest. In fact, none of us really can. Here's why:


We just launched Spring 2010 to the trade and are busy preparing for it's showcase at Bread & Butter in Berlin. There's lots going on for next Spring, but then again there's a boat load of new stories and details a little closer at hand in the form of the Fall 2009 collection which will be appearing in shop before we know it. Since we don't mind confusing blog-readers we'll be sharing some news on both. For Fall there are stories pending like the 1KILO MELTON.



But the reason Barbera van Rest can't rest right now is that all 10 of the limited edition Boro Spy Jacket samples she worked on for Bread & Butter have arrived in the studio. Obviously only a few DENHAM retailers will be getting examples of these when Spring 2010 hits the stores (in what will seem ages from now), but more folks will get a chance to see them during the upcoming event in Berlin where they'll all be on display.


Each style is cut by hand from one-of-a-kind genuine Japanese Boro textiles. Boro refers to the culture of itinerant workers in Japan who, like American sharecroppers during the heyday of original denim culture, created handstitched work clothing which demonstrated high levels of resourcefulness and artisan facility. Fabrics were sewn together from scraps and dyed in natural indigo (very like Blue Jeans). Patch and repair work is also done by hand and the tones, textures and pattern-play is unique in the world of indigo.


Beyond tying to the spirit of authentic sharecropper denim in several ways, this project also ties to the wider culture of Japan itself where much of the world's best denim now comes from. Original narrow-loom machinery was purchased by the Japanese when America moved to mass-production and the Japanese have been evolving the high-craft element of denim production ever since. DENHAM is partnered with inspiring collaborators in Japan and we employ Japanese selvedge denim in key styles and core models throughout the collection.

CALL A MEDIC

I KILO MELTON AHOY


Spring and Summer have been playing a little hard-to-get recently. Morning chills and surprise thunder-showers, but that's part of Amsterdam's charm. The temperature inside our store next to the studio here has been heating up steadily regardless of the weather outside and a bunch of the Spring styles have sold-out. The phenomenon makes us glad we were able to do so some re-ordering but it also has us thinking about the first Fall deliveries which will begin to drop at the end of next month.

Because we have the patience of 2-year olds, we're gonna start talking a little bit about the coming Fall in some new entries here. This is the first of those.


If you're lucky enough to find a Melton wool quality that is dense enough to measure a full kilo when a meter of the stuff is thrown on a scale you get to call it 1-KILO MELTON.

We've developed a fabric meeting that standard and used it to create a focused range of outerwear styles for Fall.

For instance, the MEDIC men's sportcoat.

The style was inspired by a WW2 POW-Medic's traditional sportcoat from our DENHAM GARMENT LIBRARY. We worked to update the concept while paying respectful homage to the utility, ruggedness and natural sense of swagger of the original. The Medic along with the other 1-KILO MELTON styles will be unleashed in the shop as Fall begins to land.

ROYAL SLICE

Princess Maxima opens 'Arnhem Mode Biennale' with a pair of scissors from DENHAM

Opening Arnhem Mode Biënnale 2009 from HotKitchenOven on Vimeo.

In fashion there's maybe no better symbol of the crucial importance of collaboration than a pair of tailor's scissors. Two blades working together to cut clean graceful curves through the most rugged country cloth and the finest silk. The 'Arnhem Mode Biennale' manifests the spirit of this metaphor, representing Culture and Industry working together on the platform of fashion,
for which Arnhem has become world renowned thanks to ArtEZ and the international profile of its graduates.

Jason Denham's new DENHAM label celebrates a similar interaction.
The brand concept could be described as "two blades of tradition and innovation working together". This idea is manifested beautifully in a pair of antique French tailor's scissors from the DENHAM GARMENT LIBRARY. The pair was used by Princess Maxima when she officially cut the ribbon and opened the Biennale this Friday 5th of June.
The event, which creates a stage for designs from more then 80 international designers, was a perfect outing for the classic French blades. Securely returned now to the DGL, we're proud they were of use for our Princess and the Arnhem Mode Biennale.

JUNKIE XL (TOKYO)

Whilst we strive to worship tradition occasionally we take a moment to worship our worshippers. So it gives us great pride to post these images from one of our admirers, and one of Hollands finest talents: Junkie XL, on his recent tour of Japan. Playing host to a crowd of happy clubbers at a Tokyo fashion event, and wearing his favourite relaxed fit D A R T Denhams.


Whilst Tom insists the "hands-in-the-air" are for his record mixing tenacity, we are of the opinion his Japan Vintage Light washed denims are getting their own rapturous round of applause.



But there are more strings to Tom's bow than spinning the wheels to a thronging mass. Always evolving his techniques from DJing to producing, creating soundtracks, tweaking the geeks on computer games, and even taking the time to teach young kids the joys of making music. Anybody who uses their knowledge to better someone elses is a hero in our book.

We salute Junkie XL.

INCUBATING NINE MONTHS

When the first batch of up-to-spec Tapers & Cutters showed up in the studio it marked the real birth of the label. That kind of symbolism wasn't lost on the half dozen folks working here at the time. Sentimental blokes who were also jonzing to finally pull a pair of the things on.

So they made a pact.

The deal was that they'd put 'em on and essentially leave them on for 9 months.


The four butt-cheeks above (3 Tapers and a Cutter) begin to tell the rest of the story.

The full jeans, front and back, map out aspects of the four different slices of life spent in them. We'll eventually get around to uploading additional images of each in the DENHAM GARMENT LIBRARY. When we do you'll see the way indigo, cotton, stitching, weather, sun and time work together to reveal who carries soft-pack cigarettes, who cycles to work, who spends most of the day on his ass in an SUV, who carries two mobile phones and who regularly drops to his knees to examine prototypes on the sample-room floor.

Just like life, 9 months in gestation and the brand is well-and-truly born.

EVERYONE'S BIRTHDAY

Well, not everyone. But it does seem like most of the folks around here anyway. The crew will be munching on cake all Spring. The big day for the man himself fell somewhere in the middle of the current birthday streak. -And true to Dutch tradition, Jason brought in his own dessert.


We thanked him with a new set of antique tailoring shears. Here's hoping we can all keep worshiping tradition and destroying convention during the season to come. Lest we forget we've reminded him to remind us. Happy birthday from all your buddies Mr. Denham. Happy Easter weekend to the rest of you.

INTRODUCING THE REAL JEAN GENIE

According to Wikipedia, one of the most famous songs ever written. Bravo Bowie. The popularity apparently hasn't subsided. Our spin on the harem-style Genie pant sold through our own store much quicker than we expected. Inspired partly by a few pieces in our DENHAM GARMENT LIBRARY we had initially limited our interpretation to a soft chambray.

After seeing the reaction, we scrambled to redevelop the style in our premium Singing Sateen in both black and white and we added a denim variation with the attitude we think Bowie was singing about. A genuine Jean Genie.

DGL DIGITAL

WE'LL SHOW YOU OURS IF YOU SHOW US....

The DENHAM GARMENT LIBRARY will eventually be fully digital. The process has started but it will take some time. We're a jeans label and haven't even dug into the jean archive yet. When it is more fully documented, we'll continue to make it avalailble here in cyberspace. As much as we'd like to horde it, we've decided there might be a few others out there who are as obsessive about this stuff as we are.


When it's more complete we'll likely start issuing library cards to grant individual access, but for now you're welcome to have a look around as we busy ourselves filling the first few shelves.

JUST A BUTTON

A few of us have marketing credits on our resumes. Speaking for myself though, I was always shitty at it. So it comes pretty natural to break rule number one and communicate about stuff that isn't even in our own commercial pipeline yet.


Today we received images of the handworked wax models for the button from our new closure system, -not to be seen on our product until the Spring 2010 collection (that's where talking about it now breaks marketing rule number one). The first round of prototypes were fantastic but our development-partners had used the wrong scissor artwork. We had insisted that the finishing reflect a sculpted 3D rendering instead of a flat CNC design so they had substituted an available version instead of using ours for the sake of speed.

Understandable but not quite good enough.

The folks we work with are just as inept at marketing-communications as we are. This is actual copy from their current website:

"I am a dummy copy. And I’ve been a dummy copy since my birth. It took me a long time to realize what it means to be a dummy copy: you make no sense. You stand out now and then by being completely out of context. Often, you aren’t even read at all. But does that make me a bad copy? ...."


Anyway, looking at the progress they're making on the new carvings we can forgive them the funky copywriting. Besides, who are we to talk? We'll focus on the product, they'll focus on our new button system and we can leave the marketing strategy to other folks.

ARTSY TEFAFartsy

This weekend is TEFAF. It's the world's largest art fair.

The crew at over at Accent Circonflexe were kind enough to invite us to get little artsy-fartsy with our message, asking us to create a special display for their shop timed to coincide with the fair.

We're not above boosting good ideas (we've already apologized to Bob Dylan for the same crime here on the blog) and this time we stole a bit of attitude from the artist E.V. Day. We can relate to the obsession for detail, the fascination with taking things apart to learn more about them, and the impulse to blow things up in order to move them forward.

A lunchtime trip to the local hardware store followed by a late-night adventure with low level power tools resulted in our contribution to TEFAF's invasion of Maastricht. Call it the Art of Jeanscraft. Call it Worship Tradition, Destroy Convention, call it an artsy homework assignment... a diorama (kijkdoos) for grown-ups. Check it out if you're lucky enough to visit the event and tell the folks at Accent Circonflexe we said, 'thanks'.

BOB SPELLED BACKWARDS

Well, Bob spelled backward is boB...  -I guess.  A name with great balance, and around here we talk about balance all the time. But a certain Bob's cue-card flipping stroke of filmic genius has a style that's been bitten by so many others we figured we'd jump in and loot it too.  Maybe in the crowd of like-minded copycats nobody would notice us sneaking off with the concept.  When we reviewed the tape backwards by accident we all looked at each other with the same thought; we should probably play it backwards on purpose.

 Alsjeblieft...

Sorry to Mr. Dylan for joining the thieving frenzy and tearing our own little chunk out of his original idea. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Thanks to David Gensler over at the KDU who trusted us with pre-release poloroids of examples from his own amazing collection of tailors' shears.  As fellow collectors we should have respected his request that we not publish them, but we went and stuck 'em in the video anyway.  Be sure to keep an eye out for the moment when he publishes his own photo-journal of the full collection, it's sure to be amazing.

FOR HER: PLEATS WITH A TWIST

Seems ages ago I was standing in the airport in New Delhi after my holiday. A bit blue to leave India but excited to get back to work.



The airport there is always a feast for the eyes, particularly for people-watchers. Right in front of me a group of lovely looking nuns, maybe returing from missionary work. The pleating of their habits reminded me of one of the shirts in our DENHAM GARMENT LIBRARY archive. Also in the cue were maybe a dozen men from Rajasthan. Super cool faces, clothes, colors, textures.

The men's turbans were amazing. The "tray-table in front of me" on the flight home is where I began sketching up a top combining plisse and heavy twisting techniques.

BLUE SALAD BAR NOW SERVING

The opening of the D E N H A M store marks the launch of the Blue Salad Bar. Visitors pick the riveting, shank-button specification, key-pocket ringback button, back-pocket four-hole button and leather waistband patch.

Any selection from any color-set in any combination ready for pick-up in 7 days. No, we're not the first but that doesn't make it any less fun. Besides, in our case the salad is tossed by Jason himself on the weekends and uses only our freshest ingredients. Time will tell if he'll look back at this as a good idea or not. In the meantime we're taking advantage of his good nature.



For His the Dart. Japanese selvedge denim given refined shape using our own twist on the traditional "tailorwise arts"; Darted articulation [darticulated...?], fully tailored waistband, boxed button-holes, bound flies, leather rivet-bushings and the signature 7-point pocket pattern.

For Hers, the Skinny. Premium finishing inspired by the mens' collection and featuring a slight dash of stretch to realize the optimum balance of shape and comfort.

495 MEET 493. 493 THIS IS 495

For the last few months we've been spoiled. Tucked away in our new design studio here at 493 Prinsengracht regularly reminded of our luck by the steady soundtrack of "whoa shit, nice studio..." salutations we get from friends stopping by.

Get your own - Open publication

Cool digs indeed and we're daily aware of the privildedge of spending our time here.  But none of us wants to horde it all to ourselves and now that the shop is completed, it just got a whole lot easier for folks to come share the atmosphere.

The D E N H A M Store has now opened next door to us at 495 Prinsengracht.  Just a single plate-glass door between the studio and the shop, it's the set-up we all dreamed of having at the places we used to work, but never managed to pull off before.  Thanks to everyone for joining us on the big night.  -And, for the rest of you, swing by and say "hey" when you get a chance.

STEAMER/BANKER/NAVIGATOR [REDUX]

What's old today is new tomorrow. And invention always seems new. So when Jason brought back a Louis Vuitton steamer bag circa 1911 he had dug-up at a specialist shop in Japan, two things happened.


First; we bought a book. Paul-Gerard Pasols' Louis Vuitton: The Birth of Modern Luxury. Honestly we're on the fence as to the idea of luxury these days. But for sure we're all agreed on quality and innovation so it was inspiring to flip through the pages and find out about the sort of crazy inventions coming from the Vuitton clan back in the day. Some to do with transformer-style travel bags (like the case that sprouts a daybed) and some to do with travel itself (like DaVinci looking airplanes and helicopters).


Around here we try to worship tradition while destroying convention, so this stuff was spiritually right up our street.


Second; Jason collaborated with a small English bag atelier to re-imagine our own steamer, banker and ww2 pilot's navigator bags in Japanese selvedge denim, British saddle leather and solid brass hardware.

THE CUTTERS PRACTICAL GUIDE

The book, The Cutters Practical Guide turned out to be the gift that kept-on giving. Passed down as a family heirloom printed in 1910 and sold at the time for 15 shillings and providing "economical cutting guides" for every garment in the wardrobe along with adverts for additional resources like uniform designs for "Military, Naval, Police and Fireman".

Long live utility tailoring.


Our attempts to carry the torch are modest enough. A dart (or two) to ease the sleeves into a curve, selvege down the spine, boxed button holes... An homage as honest as we can offer.