Evisu F/W 2007

Evisu has been trying to regain their reputation as the world's best brand for denim and jeans for some time now, and their latest effort is their first full men's and women's collection, shown in New York City at Bryant Park's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.
This was a nice surprise to me; both that they actually did a full high-end line and the look of the line itself.
The collection was supposedly inspired by "twentieth century Japan, and the merging of the East and the West" but the collection looked more like just mid twentieth century and not so much Japan, apart from a few kimonos and pieces from the women's line, which to me is a good thing.
Not everything was good though, there were a couple of things that were a bit too spaced out, like the jeans with selvedge on the outside..
The thing I liked seeing the most was the fact that there was one pair of jeans that were very inspired by late 1800 501's, I really hope to see more retro designs like that!

'Read More' for runway photos and more!








Indigo silk satin dress to the right.



Indigo silk and denim hakama suit.


Print says "58% don't want washing."




No gulls! Nevda style one-pocket jeans.



Designers Bonita Newby and Johnny Diamandis. I wonder what his jeans are..

I don't want to hype this collection too much, it certainly isn't the best of this year, but because of what I've been seeing from Evisu EU Ed. my expectations were.. well, I actually didn't have any expectations! That's why I was so pleasantly surprised by this collection.
I hope that Evisu will keep improving, and improving in this case pretty much means;

• start selling jeans from the Japanese line outside of Japan, or at least start making jeans to the same specifications as those
• start offering jeans without the gulls
• stop giving away jeans to celebrities
• focus more on authenticity and quality of construction of denim, than on innovating designs

I know that things are at least going in this direction, since some things are made from denim from Japanese mills like Kaihara and Kuroki.
Also, Hidehiko Yamane is now on the board of the directors, hopefully he still "has it."

Other news about Evisu - they just opened a flagship store in Copenhagen. Not too far away from me, hopefully I'll be able to visit it soon.

Denim Demon SS07 preview

A few days ago I had the opportunity to have a first look at the samples from Denim Demon's spring/summer collection. Denim Demon is a very small brand, likewise the new collection; it contains only 2 pairs of jeans and a logo t-shirt.

One of the two pairs is the updated Aajja, Denim Demon's first pair which was a '47-ish cut. The leg has been made slightly wider, only one centimetre or so in width, to make it less similar to the new model, Aahka.
The Aahka is inspired by the Levi's 1967 505 and thus it is the slimmer of the two cuts. To me, it's like a slimmed down version of the first Aajja, but it still has the high(er) rise, which means you can it both low and high, with equally good results.
There's also another difference between the two models - the girl in the backpocket is stitched in blue on the Aahka.

Both models have been updated material-wise - they are both made in the same 14.5 oz denim now. The new denim feels slightly more rough and the color is similar to the old denim, but not exactly the same.




The new collection will be released in early April, which is when you can expect to see a more in-depth post about it here!

UNIQLO denim S/S 07

Uniqlo is the Japanese equivalent to H&M and Zara, but seemingly with a bigger passion for denim. Their last release of selvedge denim jeans was highly sought after but unfortunately released in very small quantities outside of Japan, perhaps they hadn't noticed the selvedge trend in the West at the time.
The denim used in the last release was supposedly of very high quality in relation to the price, 5000 Yen.

These are Naoto's last season's Uniqlo shuttle denim jeans and according to him the denim is very similar to that of his Nudie Regular Ralf Dry Selvedge. Not surprising considering they both use denim from Kaihara, which Levi's also does for some of the jeans in their Vintage line.


The Spring/Summer '07 denim line will however not be made from selvedge denim, but most of the denim will still be from the Kaihara mill. While selvedge is in now way an indicator of quality, I do think that it is a nice, not to say important, detail. And of course, it gives you bragging rights if you cuff your jeans..
The Fall/Winter collection will feature selvedge denim.

This season, the denim is made from two different types of cotton, long fibre cotton from different, undisclosed, parts of the world, and Supima cotton from the U.S for the 11.5oz high-end jeans.
The color is a red-cast indigo. The denim is also rope-dyed, which is almost required in order for the denim to fade well.

Fits from the whole spectrum, from skinny to baggy, will be offered at prices from $40-60.

Click for more pictures!








Here are pictures of an old pair of Uniqlo shuttle denim jeans, too bad they were washed too soon and often..

The jeans at Uniqlo.jp

Since I may not get the opportunity to look at these with my own eyes, I'd love to hear what you American and British guys think of them, and maybe even look at pictures of your pair!
Please let me know if you have/have seen a pair :)

S0500XX 2 Months

So, I've now reached two months of wear on the contest jeans. I am a bit behind some of the other contestants, both because I got my jeans almost 20 days late, and because I don't do a lot of physical work in them. I know that they will look great in November though, and hopefully the amount of wear will not be the biggest deciding factor.

It was very hard to capture the real color the denim, in some photos the wear was a little to pronounced and in some it look almost non-existant.










After taking these pictures I gave the jeans a hot soak to try to shrink them down further. I also soaked them after the first month, so they have a total of 3 hot soaks now.
The two latest soaks shrunk them 2 cm more in length, so the length is pretty much final now. The waist however does not shrink to less than 80 cm in circumference. Maybe with my first machine wash they will shrink a bit more.

I did not take after-pictures simply because no color is lost from a soak.

Don't forget to check out the contest in full at www.denimcontest.com