In amongst all our Designers in our Clerkenwell, London Office, we have a truly talented Denim Designer, Kelly. We managed to pull her away from her Denim washes and Profile Stitches just long enough, to get her to answer some questions about our AW10 Denim Range:
Where did the Denim branding idea’s come from?
I looked back to our heritage, the brand started in 1963 so I wanted to know what was happening at that time, I also wanted to shout about our quality and for example we have some buttons which look like old coins the feeling of old money just says quality to me. The swingtags and labeling all comes from the Great Train Robbery, the biggest heist of it’s time which happened in 1963, the swing tags look like luggage labels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Train_Robbery_(1963)
The profile stitch... What made you come up with this?
We’ve never had any true denim branding on Ben Sherman denim, denim has 200 years of history of manufacture so we have lots of history to learn from. Back in the 1870’s denim brands over in America realised that having a back patch wasn’t enough and it often fell off after heavy wear, they started adding decorative stitches to back pockets so the jean was clearly identifiable. Our profile stitch comes from the plectrum which we use on our shirts and jackets so again we’re sitting back with the branding that’s already in store. Denim’s a tough one to get right in terms of authenticity and we don’t want to be like these western brands they do what they do and we’re doing something else, clean and on brand.
http://www.bensherman.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product2_12051_-1_24509_82611_10551_24503
What’s your top style this season?
Our selvage, it’s a brilliant robust red cast 14 oz denim that’s going to last you. It’s developed especially for us with our orange colour from our branding in the selvage at the side seams; back belt loop and match pocket, it’s an absolute bargain too. It comes in Rampton our slim fit and True Icon our straight.
http://www.bensherman.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product2_12051_-1_24509_88801_10551_24503
What is selvage?
Everyone has probably heard or seen the word “Selvage” or also “Selvedge” they both mean the same thing and this name is given to a particular type of denim cloth. Woven on the most realistic or closest to the original looms, it’s a narrow denim that has two coloured edges. This is the most expensive type of denim purely because of the length of time it takes to weave and the narrow loom. It’s for the purist.
What’s so specialist about denim why do people get so fanatical?
Denim is one of the most popular and oldest fabrics still used in today’s manufacture, it should be treated with respect, weaving and dying hasn’t really changed all that much over the past couple of hundred years; it’s just progressed to meet the demand. It’s also got a real global history. First recorded mass manufacture was in Nimes in France with narrow looms and wooden shuttles. Then shipped to Genoa in Italy for tailor made pants for sailors (Genoa, Genes, Jeans) then onto America in San Francisco where the “forty niners” boomed the dry goods business with hundreds of companies making these heavy durable jeans. Indigo usec to be natural but the demand was so great that in 1869, Adolf Baeyer in Berlin created a chemical compound to mirror the dye. The dye doesn’t sink in or penetrate into the yarn leaving the centre point natural which allows the colour to change. Denim changes colour and evolves the more you wear your jeans, the jean you buy raw will have a completely different attitude 6 months or a year after wearing.
What’s different about Ben Sherman denim to the likes of other big brands?
It’s all developed in house in Clerkenwell London and all washes are developed by me and my wash technicians by hand. Therefore making it truly original to us.
http://www.bensherman.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product2_12051_-1_24509_82614_10551_24503
To see our Ben Sherman Denim Range, please visit: http://www.bensherman.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Category1_12051_24509_-1_24503_10551_24503
