Scott Morrison at Evisu coming to RHD

Paper Denim founder takes job at Japanse jeans giant Evisu to regain denim supremacy

Text by David Hellqvist   |   Published 30 March 2010

In terms of cultural importance and geographical retail spread, Levi’s jeans are petty far ahead. Ironically, though, one of the labels chasing the American denim giant's tail is a brand that started out making obsessive replicas of the 1944 Levi’s 501 XX jean. Japanese Evisu, with its new CEO Scott Morrison, acknowledges the impact of Levi’s (even Evisu’s name is a wordplay on Levi’s) but makes a valid point about Evisu being a denim and fashion brand on its own merits with kudos, history and heritage. Today, the worldwide focus is on the seagull branded denim and its new found denim expert designer. Morrison, who you will know as the founder and of Paper Denim & Cloth and Earnest Sewn, took up his design residence with Evisu last year, tasked with breathing new life into a label that have of late struggled to regain its original influence.

Now, with its Autumn Winter 2010 collection hanging in an East London showroom, Scott Morrison has flown over from his New York studio for a quick visit. Dazed Digital met up with him to talk about the re-branding, an Americana inspired collection and Evisu’s 20th anniversary next year. With the hiring of Morrison, Evisu and its founder Hidehiko Yamane has truly tracked down an equal denim connoisseur. With Paper and Earnest Sewn, Morrison revolutionised how denim was conceived and bought. Both Evisu and Morrison’s previous fashion ventures pay homage to Levi’s, and Yamane built his professional career on just that. So who could be more suitable than Scott Morrison to continue Evisu’s legacy?

Dazed Digital: How did the collaboration between you and Evisu come about?
Scott Morrison: After having started and worked with both Paper Denim and Earnest Sewn since 1997, I felt I wanted to do something a bit different. It didn’t have to be denim related, but the day I left Earnest Sewn I got the call from Evisu. At first I wasn’t sure, but we had some great meetings and I agreed to come on board. It’s certainly been a challenging eight, nine months but it has worked out beautifully so far.

DD: What would you say are the biggest differences between running your own company and working for a giant such as Evisu?
Scott Morrison: Well, this is a unique opportunity for me to work with a global brand. Like it or not, everyone knows of it and has an opinion on it. I mean, Paper Denim was sold throughout the world, but Evisu is one of the best denim brands in the world. I suppose the biggest difference is that I now have to balance my personal views with that of Evisu’s commercial needs.

DD: How does consumers view the brand?
Scott Morrison: Interestingly enough, people see the brand very differently depending on where they live. The US, for example, is very focused on the Evisu product, whereas Asia looks more to the logo. The Europe is a mixture of the two.

DD: And you personally, what’s your Evisu relationship like?
Scott Morrison: I recently found a picture of myself from 1997, wearing an Evisu raw denim jacket. I was obsessed, you couldn’t get in the States at the time, but I bought it when I was travelling. I must have had dozens of Evisu jeans at the time!

DD: Does the production take place in Japan?
Scott Morrison: No, we do a lot of fabric sourcing in Japan and manufacture mostly in the US and Italy. But in time for our 20th anniversary next year, we will produce 20 special items per season, each one a replica from every year of Evisu’s history, and a few of those will probably come from Japan.
 
DD: What was the main inspiration for the Autumn Winter collection?
Scott Morrison: We used the word ‘reference’ as a starting point. It’s obviously a broad term, but the idea was to go back to Evisu’s love affair with Levi’s, Americana and especially the 1944 Levi’s 501 XX. The history is that during the war, the US government forbad all use of unnecessary fabrics. So Levi’s had to stop sew on the thread on the back of each jeans back pocket, and they painted them on instead. Hence the Evisu painted on seagull logo! There’s a great replica tradition in Evisu and we took that thought process and applied to key items from history, which we referenced.  We wanted to start re-telling the origins of how Evisu came into being.

DD: Yes, there’s a strong sense of work wear in the collection…
Scott Morrison: Yeah, but that was Yamane’s original vision, so most Evisu clothes were work wear inspired classics done with his twist.

DD: Speaking of Yamane, what’s he like?
Scott Morrison: He’s a wild and crazy guy! He still runs Evisu Japan, and he’s quite a character. He has lots of views and opinions on all sorts of matters, but I think what’s most important about him is his great sense of humour.

DD: What sort of silhouettes are you working around?
Scott Morrison: There are a lot more slim jeans now than what Evisu used to make, especially on the European market. Short and boxy is still popular in Japan, they like the over sized look. The women’s wear can be quite loose because of how it’s draped.
 
DD: The logo is toned down a bit, isn’t it?
Scott Morrison: Yes, we have streamlined the seagull, it’s smaller now and we just it in a tonal way – it’s about more than contrasts now! I don’t feel it needs to be shown four times on a t-shirt because it shouldn’t be our selling point.

DD: What’s Private Stock?
Scott Morrison: It’s about retelling the history of jeans. We release three styles of denim each season that pays homage to how it used to be done or specific items we have found in the archives.

DD: What would you say is the USP of Evisu today?
Scott Morrison: We have an amazing product with a great history, and one that represents quality!

DD: Do you have a favourite piece from the AW collection?
Scott Morrison: Well, of course I’m very happy with the denim, but I also really like the deck jacket. It’s a replica a US Navy jacket from 1941 in khaki corded cotton.

FRED PERRY FOR RALEIGH BIKES

To celebrate the launch of Fred Perry online in Japan, the English Tennis brand, turned Punk icon has teamed up with Raleigh to celebrate the event with this special edition bike. Classic British racing green, with a Brooks Saddle, the bike couldn’t be anymore Fred Perry.

NEVER BEFORE SEEN STEVE MCQUEEN

Actor Steve McQueen is really best known as being a fashion icon that has inspired a specific persona that is still inspiring people today. Being a big inspiration behind the menswear collections of Maison Martin Margiela, Steve McQueen had men all over the globe trying to ’swagger’ as good as he. Below are some never seen before images of the iconic actor in his prime, playing with his toys, cars, guns and ladies.

courtesy SlamXHype & Life.com

SECRET WALL TATTOOS

Ever wondered what masterpieces hide behind the tacky artwork in Hotels & Motels around the world, well now you know,

CHECK IT OUT HERE

THE HILL-SIDE

Arriving this week at RHD NYC-based The Hill-side offer up some new product for Spring 2010. Featured amongst these releases are scarves, bandanas, and pocket squares, all crafted from Japanese chambray and Indigo, featuring signature selvedge detailing. 

Massan for Leader Bike from Dan Arel on Vimeo.

RITTENHOUSE INSTORE NOW

GENERIC SURPLUS SHOES

We have recieved our first drop of Generic Surplus shoes get into the store to check them out starting from $89

PORTER DENIM WALLET

Porter is the maker of great bags and accessories here is their latest realease a beautiful denim wallet.

RHD MENS AUTUMN LOOK BOOK

Nudie Thin Finn DBC
Sugar Cane Chambray Shirt Unwashed

Whyred chino navy
Sugar Cane shirt pink/blue check
Rittenhouse trench navy
Sugar Cane tote bag

Imperial Duke Japanese selvage dry black
Sugar Cane shirt Hickory stripe
Nudie Josef jacket DBC

Cheap Monday Snug
Sugar Cane shirt green check
Nudie Lab sweat shirt
Rittenhouse voile jacket green

Nudie Big Bengt - moody blue
Rittenhouse block stripe t
Rittenhouse green parka

Nudie Thin Finn DBC
Sugar Cane chambray shirt unwashed
Nudie Terry jacket rinsed

CHAMPFEST MAGAZINE NOW AT RHD

Out-Levi-ing Levi Strauss - New York Times By GUY TREBAY June 14, 2007

A SHORT walk from the Ueno train station, near a hill where a doomed band of loyalists to the Tokugawa Shogunate once made a fierce and celebrated last stand against imperial Meiji forces, is a destination sacred to another breed of die-hards: devotees of the Japanese denim cult.
At first glance, Hinoya Plus Mart is not much of a shrine. Open at the front, tucked beneath an overpass, and with its wares floating from rails hung above a cobbled sidewalk, it looks like the kind of place where big news might be a sale on three-packs of tube socks.
But aficionados are not put off by Hinoya’s low-rent aura, or by the dry-goods shops and fish markets that stretch for blocks around. Initiates know that beyond the wall of fluttering pant legs lies a trove of bluejeans produced by niche Japanese labels in the kind of ultradesirable limited editions that recall Richard Serra lithographs or Red Shoulder chardonnay. There is even a kind of daffy ineffable poetry in the labels’ names: Skull or Skinny or Oni or Dubble Works or Samurai or Sugar Cane.
Well into the era of so-called premium denim, bluejeans priced at $200 and more, there are those who find the notion of artisanal jeans an affront not just to the wallet (the average pair of jeans sold in America costs about $20, according to Marshall Cohen, of the market research group NPD) but also to the memory of Levi Strauss. After all, his legendary 1873 design was for a pair of unkillable, hard-wearing work trousers intended to outfit miners bound for the ore-rich hills and sloughs and streams of the California gold rush. That, of course, was an age when premium value was set on mass- and not microproduction, a time before the market inverted itself and transformed everyday stuff like coffee or photographs into artificial rarities.
This capricious evolution of taste has given rise to things like the jeans bar, a novelty five years back and now a fixture at any self-respecting specialty store. Yet it is still common enough to spend a Goldilocks afternoon sampling the wares at Barneys New York, moving from low-rise to boot-cut to relaxed-fit to straight-leg jeans, only to come away in frustration without finding anything that suits. This is at least partly because the $13 billion denim industry was hijacked by fashion somewhere along the line, and the simple unadorned beauty of old-fashioned bluejeans was lost.
Old-fashioned is a term used affectionately to refer to Levi’s crowning achievement, the button-fly 501s manufactured in what devotees refer to as the Golden Age of Levi’s, a period bracketed between the Second World War and the Summer of Love.
Heavyweight, board-stiff until worn in, best bought a size or two large and then shrunk to fit, 501s are unambiguously the model for the finest of the new Japanese denims, which flatter the originals so religiously that Levi Strauss & Company filed a complaint in San Francisco Federal Court in January, claiming that five Japanese brands had infringed on proprietary details of its jeans like the vertical tab on the rear pocket, the signature V-shaped stitching on the pocket, and the familiar logo of two horses attempting to tug apart a pair of jeans.
“These are the most recognized apparel symbols in the world and are the company’s most valuable asset,” said E. J. Bernacki, a spokesman for Levi’s, which also focused its complaint on retailers who sell the offending products, places like the denim specialists Self Edge in San Francisco and Blue in Green in SoHo, in New York.
Before the recent complaint, one could find Sugar Cane jeans at Self Edge, which Details magazine named the best denim store in America, in editions reproducing Levi’s from what are considered the landmark years: 1944, 1955, 1966.
“We were sued,” said Kiya Babzani, the proprietor of Self Edge, a Mission District boutique that is truly missionary in its pursuit of denim enlightenment. What you will not find there are Levi’s own reissues of its old designs, sold under the premium Levi’s Vintage label. “Theirs is not nearly as close a reproduction of what a 501 was like in 1947 as Sugar Cane’s version is,” Mr. Babzani said. Only Sugar Cane’s $450 copies of the 1955 Levi’s use original Scovill zippers bought from dealers in vintage stock.
Like all the best Japanese denim products, Sugar Cane jeans are sewn from cotton woven on narrow shuttle looms, in cloth weights heftier than that of most commercial fabric, and dyed using highly guarded formulas that result in saturated indigo that calls to mind the depths of a bottle of Parker’s blue ink.
While jeans made of selvedge denim (the term refers to the uncut edges of woven fabric) have been a minor obsession here since at least the 1980s, their cult status in America is a more recent phenomenon. Barely a handful of United States retailers stock labels like Sugar Cane, Flat Head or Iron Heart and none can compete with Hinoya Plus Mart in terms of the range and the obscurity of the jeans it sells. (Including, at this writing, the reproductions that offended Levi’s.)
“Japanese denim is always about extreme individuality,” explained Long Nguyen, the editor of Flaunt, the independent American style magazine. An early adopter of the Japanese denim trend, Mr. Nguyen was wearing limited-edition Evisu jeans almost a decade ago, long before hip-hop artists started shelling out $800 a pair for styles that are produced for a season and then retired.
“The cachet is finding very limited quantities and styles,” said Mr. Nguyen, who has lately forsaken Evisu for jeans by Yoropiko or RMC, a company founded in 2002 as Red Monkey Jeans by a Hong Kong designer, Martin Ksohoh (then known as Martin Yat Ming), to manufacture American-style trousers using elaborate Japanese techniques. That the rear pockets on RMC jeans, ornamented by unique Japanese woodblock prints, practically shout “limited edition” may help explain why it is that they routinely sell out at stores like Lane Crawford in Hong Kong and to customers like Mr. Nguyen and the rapper Jay-Z, who are not sticker-shocked when faced with a $2,500 price tag.
It isn’t Mr. Ksohoh’s baroque designs, though, that lure the faithful to Hinoya Plus Mart. It is brands whose low-key, nearly anonymous styling is in line with the antilabel ethos William Gibson made a centerpiece of his 2003 novel, “Pattern Recognition.” The protagonist of that book was so averse to labels that she wore generic clothing from shops like Muji — the Japanese chain whose stock is assiduously generic and whose name translates literally as “no name.”
“It goes back to the original Levi’s idea,” said Mr. Babzani of Self Edge. “The idea is that you’re wearing something of the utmost quality and construction” and yet which somehow looks generic and, in the best way, invisible.
Like minimalism in architecture, anonymity in clothing does not come cheap: reproductions of Levi’s Vintage classics produced by Sugar Cane cost as much as $300 in the United States — if you can find them — and they are not much less expensive in Japan.
Still, “we’re selling a lot of Sugar Cane right now,” claimed Koji Miura, Hinoya’s owner, referring in particular to that label’s imitations of slightly 1940s Levi’s, cut slightly high in the waist and full in the leg; and lean 501s that were stylish at about the time that American forces were bombing Cambodia; and also to a very late ’60s variant of stovepipe jeans that were, upon a time, a uniform of a bygone genus, the gay clone.
“Look at how beautiful these button-fly 501s from 1966 are,” said Mr. Miura, holding up a pair of Sugar Cane jeans. And they were. Aware that the Japanese version of the homegrown product is far finer than anything similar now being made in America, one hardly minded spending $250 for a version of something that could have been bought for $20, an eon or so ago.

THE ORANGE THREAD

ART IN THE AGE - ROOT TEA

In the 1700’s, it was called “Root Tea.” An herbal remedy made with sassafras, sarsaparilla, birch bark and other wild roots and herbs. Native Americans taught the recipe to colonial settlers. As it was passed it down from generation to generation, it grew in potency and complexity. Particularly in the Pennsylvania hinterlands, where the ingredients naturally grow in abundance.

At the close of the 19th century, as the Temperance movement conspired to take the fun out of everything, a Philadelphia pharmacist removed the alcohol from Root Tea and rechristened it (ironically) “Root Beer”. He did this so that hard drinking Pennsylvania coal miners and steelworkers could enjoy it in place of true alcoholic refreshment. He introduced his “Root Beer” in a big way at the still legendary 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. The rest, as you know, is flaccid history

Here at Art in the Age, we thought it would be interesting and fun to turn back the clock and recreate a true pre-temperance alcoholic Root Tea. We’ve even made it certified organic, since back then, everything was organic. This is the opposite of corporate culture. It’s a genuine experience rooted in history and our own landscape. It is a truly interesting and contemplative quaff. Certainly like nothing else we have ever tasted before. It is NOT Root Beer flavored vodka or a sickly sweet liqueur.

TASTING NOTES:

• It is distilled from organic sugar cane grown in the U.S., and has a lively, burnished rose-gold color.

• Incredibly unique in flavor, fairly clean on the palate with strong notes of birch, peppery herbaceousness, spices, citrus and vanilla bean.

• Very aromatic in the glass and finishes medium dry and exceptionally full-bodied.

• A truly original spirit with a strong enough backbone to hold up in cocktail; a classic, but like nothing else.

HOW DO THEY MAKE YOUR NUDIES???

BERTELLI BICYCLES NYC

BICI IS THE ITALIAN SLANG FOR BIKE/BIKES.
EVERY BERTELLI BICYCLE IS A UNIQUE DESIGN OBJECT THAT YOU WON'T FIND IN ANY STORE IN NEW YORK CITY.
EVERY PART IS ASSEMBLED BY HAND, FINISHED AND FINE-TUNED BY ME, FRANCESCO.
ALL MY BIKES ARE TRACK BIKES AND FIXED GEAR ONLY (WITH THE EXCEPTON OF SOME COASTER-BRAKE BUILDS).


I COMBINE BRAND NEW PARTS WITH "NEW OLD STOCK" AND VINTAGE PARTS FOUND AT FLEA MARKETS, OLD BIKESHOPS, COLLECTORS AND FROM MY TRUSTWORTHY SUPPLIERS.
THE FINAL RESULT IS THAT YOU WON'T FIND EXACTLY THE SAME COMBINATION IN ANY OTHER BICYCLE OUT THERE.
AND YOUR BICYCLE WILL BE UNIQUE.


http://www.bertellibici.com

THE SELBY - INSIDE PEOPLES LIVES

Todd Selby is a portrait, interiors, and fashion photographer and illustrator. His project The Selby offers an insider’s view of creative individuals in their personal spaces with an artist's eye for detail. The Selby began in June 2008 as a website, www.theselby.com, where Todd posted photo shoots he did of his friends in their homes. Requests quickly began coming in daily from viewers all over the world who wanted their homes to be featured on the site. The Selby’s website became so popular—with up to 35,000 unique visitors daily—that within months, top companies from around the world began asking to collaborate.

These joint projects have included a large ad campaign and web project with Nike 6.0, a solo show at colette, an international ad campaign for Habitat, work for the New York Times T Magazine, and frequent contributions to Vogue Paris and Architectural Digest France. Todd’s first book, The Selby is In Your Place, will be released in May 2010 by Abrams.

Before working on this project full time Todd worked as a translator and Tijuana tour guide to the International Brotherhood of Machinists, a researcher into the California strawberry industry, a Costa Rican cartographer, a consultant on political corruption to a Mexican Senator, an art director at a venture capital firm, an exotic flower wholesaler, a Japanese clothing designer, and a vermicomposting entrepreneur. Todd currently lives in New York City. His pastimes include eating four square meals a day, planning vacations, breaking his computers, and working on his tan.

VISIT THE SELBY ONLINE

Limited Edition Tellason Denim

Tellason Selvage denim from Cone Mills’ White Oak plant in Greensboro, NC. Cut and sewn in San Francisco. Limited edition run of 240 hand-numbered pairs only available in 25 stores worldwide. 9 available in store as of tomorrow but be quick these wont last.

Check out an interview with creater of Tellason, Tony Patella here

http://www.acontinuouslean.com/2009/08/20/the-interview-tony-patella-of-tellason/

a lil about selvedge denim

Selvedge denim is a type of denim which forms a clean natural edge that does not unravel. It is commonly presented in the unwashed or raw state. Typically, the selvage edges will be located along the out-seam of the pants, making it visible when cuffs are worn.

The word "selvedge" comes from the phrase "self-edge", the natural edge of a roll of fabric. As applied to denim, it means that which is made on old-style shuttle looms. These looms weave fabric with one continuous cross thread (the weft) that is passed back and forth all the way down the length of the bolt. As the weft loops back into the edge of the denim it creates this “self-edge” or Selvage. Selvage is desirable because the edge can’t fray like lower grade denims that have separate wefts which leave an open edge that must be stitched.

Shuttle looms weave a more narrow piece of fabric, and thus a longer piece of fabric is required to make a pair of jeans (approximately 3 yards). To maximize yield, traditional jean makers use the fabric all the way to the selvage edge. When the cuff is turned up the two selvage edges, where the denim is sewn together, can be seen. The selvage edge is usually stitched with colored thread: green, white, brown, yellow, and red (red is the most common). Fabric mills used these colors to differentiate between fabrics.

Most selvage jeans today are dyed with synthetic indigo, but natural indigo dye is available in some denim labels. Though they are supposed to have the same chemical makeup, there are more impurities in the natural indigo dye. Loop dying machines feed a rope of cotton yarn through vats of indigo dye and then back out. The dye is allowed to oxidize before the next dip. Multiple dips create a deep dark indigo blue.

In response to increased demand for jeans in the 1950s, American denim manufacturers replaced the old shuttle style looms with modern projectile looms. The new looms produced fabric faster and wider (60-inches or wider). Synthetic dyeing techniques along with post-dye treatments were introduced to control shrink and twist.