IMOGENE + WILLIE

There is a lot of talk at the moment about how people shop, have shopped, will shop in the future. I have my own theories, and I won't bore you with them here; suffice to say that I am always right. However, I do think they key thing to remember is that shopping can be an absolute pleasure. Everyone seems to be enjoying denying themselves rather than buying anything at the moment, some kind of consumerist hair shirt, and that is missing the point of what is great about shopping. Going into a shop that has been set up by someone who's clearly harboured the dream of their own store for a long time. Knowing that they've refined it in their imagination for years, and spent effort, time and hope creating it in real life. Additionally, imagine if the shop sells things made on the premises, by the people in the shop. Buying something directly from the people who have conceived it and designed it, made it and washed it, is an utterly perfect way to spend money. Buying from people who love what they do and understand denim is the connoisseurs' way to buy jeans, but it shouldn't be.

How does this one sound:
'My family has been in the denim business for 22 years. I have worked in the family business for what seemingly feels like the whole 2 decades.. My hands and my husband's hands are blue, most all of the days.
My husband and I have started our own label, imogene + willie...and will soon open our store... in a gas station, in Nashville, Tennessee.
We just simply want to sew in the back of the store, a good jean for both men and women, that fits perfectly. We have no intention to wholesale the product. Just would hope that the gas station would become a destination for lovers of good denim and other treasures.'

Jealous yet?

From imogene + willie, not only do you get to buy something from someone's dream, you also get really lovely chambray shirts with vintage buttons and authentic handmade in America denim jeans. And seriously, check out the wash on these...

LEVI'S LIMITED EDITION GRAPHIC COLLECTION

Very cool-looking reverse printed Levi's, on the classic 501 shape and being released as a limited edition. They are apparently inspired by 1980's video game graphics, and the Levi's arcuate stitching on the back pocket and button on the fly match the respective print colours.
Sources: Coolhunting and h(y)r

VINTAGE MADNESS: DENIM TOPPER

From Bliss Vintage

SAN FRANCISCO DREAMING

At the risk of sounding ridiculous, I have a rule which I try to impose on myself when considering a purchase, and that is 'would it look good getting into a vintage Porsche'. I don't own a vintage Porsche, and it's unlikely I ever will. I also know it makes me sound like a wanker. But I think it keeps me on the straight and narrow, style-wise. It requires clothes that have a cool edge, an 'old money' vibe, a touch of originality and a nod to the classic.

So, with that disclaimer out of the way, let's continue.

The 912 Porsche.



Source: A Time To Get

This is the car that Robert Redford drives in Spy Game (sorry, but I love that film), and people who know more than me tell me it was in production between 1965 - 1969, and again in 1976, so it has a discernibly strong association with classic imagery from those specific times. My mind is also eliding it with Jacqueline Bisset and Bullitt (which is unforgiveable, as the internet tells me she drove a 1964 Porsche 356 Cabriolet). That takes me to San Franscisco, and that is the perfect beginning for a pair of jeans...

Poladroid pictures from top:
Current/Elliott
18th Amendment
Citizens of Humanity
Not sure - maybe Antipodium
Jovovich-Hawk
Not sure - maybe Unknown Factory

Jeans from top:
Current/Elliott (old season)
Ksubi (tobi.com)
18th Amendment (tobi.com)
Wrangler (asos.com)
18th Amendment (tobi.com)

RABII DENIM: BESPOKE JEANS

Just read an article in The Times about a shop in Glasgow called Che Camille, which works with Scottish designers on the premises in Glasgow to create a mix of bespoke fashion & made-to-measure pieces. One of the designers there is Robert Watson, who has launched a bespoke denim line, Rabii Denim. There's an interview with him in Dazed Digital from January. His route into design was through homemade clothes in childhood and then a tailoring course & tailoring job. He clearly treats denim as a tailor's fabric rather than as a base cloth to be washed and treated, which I imagine will give the jeans quite a different look to even handmade Japanese dry denims. They have some basic fits which can be adapted/made-to-measure, or I think they will also work with a favourite jean, which sounds exciting.
From the article: “My mother made my clothes because we were poor. Kids used to make fun of me at school because I wore the clothes made by my mother and, after I told her, she encouraged me to draw the garments I wanted.” The pieces (jeans & jackets) use raw denim and are made to the traditional standards and know-how of tailors: high quality, thick and untreated fabrics, assembly and finishing by hand. Though most of Robert’s designs look rather minimal, they simultaneously have a few spot-on reinventions in the proportions, cut and fabric. “A few months ago I made a pair of jeans for myself to go to a music festival,” he recounts, “I wanted to make something different, so I started doing reverse panels and reverse details on the pockets. A lot of people I met asked me where I got them and six months later they all came knocking at my door asking for exactly the same pair of jeans.”

Bespoke denims require just one fitting and the starting price is around £200, though they can easily reach £300 if there are a lot of details such as coloured stitching. “I always urge customers to go for the most basic models and warn them that the more elaborate the denims are, the worse they often look.”.

NORDIC LOVE

What's not to love? The Scandinavian aesthetic is such a winner. I'm obsessed with the It's ebayLE! blog, already elegantly described me as men standing outside sheds. If you go to Japan for your anorak's denim, and the US for the LA premium thing, Australia for street/vintage, then Scandinavia has to own cool fashion jeans at the understated/rock & roll axis. I wish British denim had an identity, but honestly it's a bit me-too, and I say that as a denim designer in Britain. Our high street stores are super innovative in denim fashion, and don't have any hang-ups about having to do denim with integrity, which means they can throw everything at the wall and try to be as fashion-forward as possible. It often works brilliantly, but you can't really qualify it as an aesthetic that is created, considered, defined, built on, expanded, challenged.

I'm going to call the Nordic knitwear intarsia, mainly because I like knowing the words for things - I'm not actually sure if it qualifies as intarsia. The Lee SS09 shoot has a really similar feel, a mix of faded 1950's kitchen sink american life and scandinavian folksiness.

The combination of check, scando jumpers and faded denim is a perfect trad folk look, and has elements of American puritanism and classic, rather than trend driven fashion, which is a leading direction for brands at the moment. The Scando brands have pioneered the dark fashion denim look for so long, I think this is now showing a great way to wear the faded blues that are taking over, even for winter... The dreamy images are from Dazed & Confused.

PARIS/MILAN SARTORIALISM

Source: The Sartorialist

DENIM CATWALK TRENDS: RRRIPS

Rip, patch, repeat. I've put a rip in the knee of a pair of my ankle skinny jeans (so I can be down with the kids, you understand), and I have to say I think it's added something to my look. I am toying with the idea of adding another one. But how far is too far...?

VINTAGE MADNESS: ACID WASH/HICKORY STRIPE BIKER JACKET

That is a whole lotta jacket. Bliss Vintage

D.I.Y DENIM

Unbeknownst to me, there a quite a lot of people out there taking pictures of themselves in clothes and putting them online. It sounds like my worst nightmare, but it's the most inspirational and democratic thing I've found in ages. For one thing, it's clear skinny jeans aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and far more people than you'd expect wear cut-off denim shorts with tights. For another, it's consistently great to see how people take things that you haven't even considered and make them look very cool and wearable without the aid of a Vogue-style photoshoot budget. Both of the shots above are with denim that's been customised. The silver shorts on Rumi from Fashion Toast are originally TopShop, the black jeans are Rodan vs Griffith jeans customised by Mimi Jung.

I've put links to a couple of the best sites that I've found so far on the right, under D.I.Y Denim.

All jeans below customised by Mimi Jung.

XLARGE x LEVI'S

Another day, another Levi's collaboration. They look good; dry denim, strong graphic, slightly cartoonish feel. Now if the stripe had been woven rather than printed... I'm seeing a bit of a resurgence in dobbies and stripes in denim, not just vintage hickory stripe but more multi-widths and even checks. Kind of a combination of street meets preppy. Looks very cool, and now everyone's obsessed with making denim stand out as much as possible, it gives you denim that looks 'different' in another way entirely from crazy washes and patches and rips.

Source: Freshness

DENIM CATWALK TRENDS: BLUE PLEATED GLAMOUR

This is almost my favourite trend I think. Boutique designers and a few catwalk designers tend to treat denim like another fabric, and style it in shapes & silhouettes that are totally non-referential to denim heritage. I think this trend has re-influenced denim designers to start using denim for everything else apart from jeans, and take advantage of the different colour options available. I love denim styled in ladylike shapes, and looser, pleated trousers and 1940's suit silhouettes are a strong direction for this - denim makes them edgier whilst these shapes give denim elegance and remove it from skinnies. Fashionistas are returning to suiting, worsteds, tweeds and classics, and denim can be part of this. In particular I love the fact that these pieces will get better with age, unlike almost any other fabric. That dress will fade around the belt, buttons and collar to become something even more special, and more personal.

SHOPPING

Siwy tie-dyed crop & Gio Goi bleached acid wash skinny

Asos own-brand track pant jean & Levi faded cuffed skinny slouchMcQueen capri & Wrangler bell-bottom
Siwy sequin jeans & Asos own-brand jegging


So I haven't been doing as much work today as maybe I should, because I have been looking at pictures of jeans on asos. (I like how that sounds like I've never looked at jeans on websites before. I do it practically every day.)

I'm pretty happy with my jeans at the moment. I've just ripped the knee of a pair of faded black ankle skimmers, and I'm wearing them with a small cuff. I've got a great pair of black dropped crotch Levi's Blue trouser jeans and I'm forcing myself to wear my high rise, wide leg 18th Amendment jeans because they were very expensive and I'm going to get good wear out of them if it kills me. They make me feel a bit mumsy, but that's my general problem with wide leg and flared jeans. However, I think they look pretty cool with a denim shirt. When it finally gets warm, I will be wearing my Current/Elliott Chambray bloomers, and trying not to look like I've just escaped from a women's prison.

But there's happy, and then there's lots of exciting new jeans out there. There's a calibration that goes on whenever I look at pictures of people in jeans on websites. Firstly of course I figure out whether I like the jean, but there are styles and washes that I won't even notice, let alone linger over, before rejecting them. It's the magic shopping equation of 'do I like it + will it fit me + will I look totally ridiculous and/or fat + is it the right version of this jean + does it look cool or dated + is it going to transform my wardrobe and my life in some mystical way'. Yeah, it's a tough qualification process. These are the winners that made it through.

1. Definitely need some bleached/tie-dyed/acid washed affair. Mentally checking if I have a pair of jeans I could attempt this with rather than buying a pair. I think these Siwy's are my favourite.
2. Love a track-pant jean with an elasticated hem. There's a great Diesel pair on asos as well. I think the slim-slouch shape is actually nicer than the boyfriend shape, and I love the pale washes. I might be alone in this though - you can't move for pictures of people in boyfriend jeans, althgouh I haven't seen any out and about on the street yet.
3. Having said that my dark wide leg jeans make me feel mumsy, I can't resist a vintage look. Either of these jeans would make me feel like I was in a movie with Steve McQueen or Paul Newman, and I think that always tells you you're looking at something with exudes class and style.
4. I'm not going to buy a pair of jeggings. But I'm pretty sure that by October I will have some form of shiny legwear. This, unlike #3, will not be an item that exudes class and style, but I will buy it anyway.

POSH LEGGINGS

Alongside denim on the runways have been various takes on shiny vinyl leggings. When brands as diverse as Miss Sixty, Acne and TopShop Unique do something similar, I take note. American Apparel's cire leggings went there first, but Les Chiffoniers's eyewateringly expensive creations cemented the look as an extension of rock chick jeans fashion, with chunky zips in all the same places. Sass & Bide have done some great metallic & animal print rock chick ones for SS09, and it seems to be denim brands that are producing the non-high street versions of these.

Specifically for summer, apart from the Sass & Bide vinyl leggings, Asos have Siwy sequin jeans/leggings which look pretty amazing.

Above, Les Chiffoniers AW08 and Sass & Bide SS09
Below, Miss Sixty AW09, TopShop Unique AW09, Acne AW09

DENIM CATWALK TRENDS: SHINY

Shiny black legs are unavoidable. Tight, vinyl shine, with ruching and ankle stacking, and heavy plasticated resin coatings will make us all look like bondage urban warrior punks. As with the bleach splattering, rips and strong metal hardware, this is a seriously aggressive, edgy trend - the total opposite of denim nostalgia. This is a wardrobe to armour yourself in.

DENIM CATWALK TRENDS: DROPPED CROTCHES

Not a brand-spanking new silhouette, but nearly. Here are some current market examples. I love it when a plan comes together.