Every year, we call the latest iteration of our Deluxe jeans “The Finest Jeans Ever Made”. While we often make bold statements, we challenge you to find a better pair of jeans. While other companies copy the details we brought back to the denim industry (like two tone stitching or the use of selvage): we never stop striving to make our denim the best. Last year some of our jeans featured leather rivet washers, natural indigo, silk & supima cotton blended denim, and bluff seams.
The importance of craftsmanship within Japan’s culture is astonishing. The utmost quality is strived for and achieved through a painstaking attention to detail. We want our garments to ultimately reflect this ethos: so we work closely with our Japanese mills to realize our vision.
This year, we’re releasing 5 new Heritage denims – each with their own unique set of characteristics and details. Staying true to traditional Japanese denim-dyeing methods and a vintage sensibility, our Spring 09 denim will feature red-caste denim; while our Fall 09 collection will feature primarily green-cast denim. Each classification of denim is indicated by a stamped number (No.1, No.2, etc.) on the leather patches; instead of mentioning our internal fabric codes like we did in the past; such as D85.
First up, we’ve relaunched our core No1Special and No2 denims. The Japanese selvage cloth is identical in both styles but while No2 has been preshrunk, No1Special is unsanforized, meaning that it will shrink down 2 inches in the waist after a wash – causing the fabric to become much tighter and forming a true vintage ‘leg twist’. We’ve also reintroduced a Left-Hand Twill denim (No13Left) to commemorate the famous Lee left hand twill jeans. Next, No3 denim is our classic D85 ‘Rising-Sun’ selvage renamed, which is woven from unbleached ‘mother cotton’ – giving it a brownish red shade in the weft and a deep blue-black tone in the semi-slub, rope dyed warp. In one case (No4), we’re using an open-yarn denim, instead of the ringspun yarn we use in all our other denim, which wears differently and has an interesting ‘spotty’ fading pattern, after a few months. Finally, in Autumn/Winter 2009 we’ll also be debuting an exotic, sulphur rope-dyed ringspun black selvage denim, No2Black. So many choices and only one pair of legs.
All our fabrics are custom-made to our exact specifications, so you won’t see them from another company. Thankfully our mills share our maniacal vision!
Since we want to educate aspiring ‘denim-heads’ and seasoned vets alike about our new denim designations, we’ve attached cloth information labels (removable of course) to our leather patches. We hope you enjoy the new Heritage denim as much as we do.
NO1 SPECIAL
No1Special is unsanforized japanese selvage denim woven in Osaka by Kaihara Corps Ltd. Unsanforized denim is the most authentic cloth, as used on the very earliest jeans. It has a slightly hairy surface and the warp and weft yarns are quite loose. When it is first washed, the yarn fibers will contract, making the denim much tighter, and causing the garment to shrink. Another effect will be leg twist or skewing. Skewed legs are a sure sign of true vintage jeans. No1Special is cut in shrink-to-fit blocks (e.g. 0001stf), so you should buy your normal size for preshrunk jeans and hot soak them before wearing. We recommend soaking them at one of the many hot springs about 100 km south of Osaka, but if that’s not possible, a warm bathtub soak and an overflowing cup of sake for yourself will suffice.
NO2
No2 denim is identical to No1Special, but sanforized. Woven in Osaka Japan on half-width shuttle looms with signature pink selvage. No2 is a mid-to heavy-weight 13.7 oz denim and has a deep blue tone with a very slight red caste. The sanforization process was invented by Sanford Cluett in 1933 and involves passing the unfinished cloth through heated rubber rollers, causing the fibers to shrink and stretching the fabric into a stable state, which will not alter with washing. Sanforizing also prevents the jeans from skewing (twisting). Lastly, the singeing process takes off the hairy surface: before 1933, all denim was unsanforized (like our No1Special).
NO3
No3 is the original famous Evisu Heritage selvage denim, previously known as D85. No3 denim is woven from unbleached ‘mother cotton’, and the warp is rope dyed with indigo to an extremely deep blue, almost black tone. Rope dyeing is so-called because the cotton yarn is twisted into a ‘rope’ which is dipped into a vat of indigo before being brought up high to the roof of a dye-house, allowing the unstable indigo compounds to oxidise on the cotton, turning it from a murky brown-green color to the deep intense blue of fine selvage denim. No3 can be recognized by the unusual ‘rising’ sun red and white selvage.
NO4
No4 is another brand-new denim specially developed for the Evisu Heritage Spring 2009 collection. The denim is woven from open-end yarn, with no slubs where the yarns are knotted together during weaving. Open-end yarn denim has a smoother, flatter surface than ring-spun denim. Like all Evisu Heritage denim, No4 is woven on half-width shuttle looms. Shuttle looms use a singe continuous weft yarn which passes backwards and forwards across the warp threads, making a clean woven selvage, unlike modern projectile looms, which shoot the weft yarns across the warp one by one. No4 denim is woven with a classic redline selvage.
NO13
No13Left is a close reproduction of the early denim used by Lee from the 1910s onwards. It is a left hand twill cloth, which is identifiable by the diagonal twill lines, which run from top-left to bottom-right. Unlike normal right hand twill denim, which is the opposite, left hand twill denim wears down even softer than its’ right hand equivalent. No13Left is green caste indigo, and has mismatched selvage: one side is plain white, and the other side has a single warp thread of indigo woven into it, staying true to the specifications of the original Lee version. Lastly, jeans cut from No13Left denim have the leather patch sewn on the left side of the waistband.
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