ROY at Self Edge





Friend and fellow (denim nut) Roy Slaper is now selling his self-made ROY jeans at Self Edge stores and online shop. Self-made is the term I am using to describe not the fact that the jeans make themselves but Roy himself makes every pair from fabric cutting, sewing, to pressing. It requires quite a bit of ingenuity to figure out how to set up his production process to be efficient enough for such an endeavor (producing enough jeans to support 3 stores, Self Edge online sales, and the upcoming ROY store in Oakland to be opened by appointment in 2011). It would be an understatement to say Roy knows what he is doing and has not sacrified quality. In fact from what I can see the quality has gone up as he puts more jeans under his belt.

Here is a quick look at the specifications:

-Fabric is White Oak Cone denim, pure indigo, no leg twist, high shrinkage
-RS01 model is slightly fuller cut, same the one he offered for a limited time through his website
-RN01 is a new model with a narrower leg and a lower rise
-New 11 oz twill pocketing cut on cross grain for balanced shrinkage effect resulting in bettering fit and comfort
-Shell stitched inside fly edge
-Price: $275














Big thanks to Roy for the bare-all pictures.

For anyone wondering if the product is worth the price I will put my name on the line here to say it is worth every penny.

ROY Website

Denim Made by Tender

One of the most honest and heartfelt jean I have seen this year is made by Tender Co. It is made from heavy unsanforized and unskewed Japanese selvage denim. It is sewn in England to respectable specifications and then dip dyed in plant indigo at a woad farm in Norfolk, England. Here it is.





People like William Kroll of Tender Co. inspire me and fuel my belief that there will always be excitement in denim. Kroll is an English designer who cut his teeth working in the denim industry, trained with tailors, picked up indigo dyeing in Okayama, Japan, and admits to maybe enjoying product development a bit more than design. This man loves the product, loves materials and I imagine him spending more time experimenting with possibilities and research than dreaming up fancy drawings. His line of jeans, jackets, vests, and tees immediately conjure a reverie of the dyeing heydays of England. If one considers the extensive use of woad and, later, indigo in Europe in general and Britain in particular the tradition is very rich. There has not been a comprehensive denim offering which draws upon the English heritage of woad and indigo dyeing and it will be exciting to see what Kroll does in this regard.

In the next few posts I will post an exploration of some of the details that make the Tender jeans special.

Tender Website