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.