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Tender Co. Denim


braille_teeth

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^brilliant! please do. You've made me want to photograph my 900 too, it's in a pretty similar state. Watch this space!
 

In the meantime, I was just sent a lovely picture by the new owner of the Stag etched plate (pics on the previous page):

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It's really nice seeing where things end up  :)

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and, like buses, here's another set of images from an owner. These are a pair of woad dyed 129s, from Liam of the excellent Understudy shop, in Calgary AB. Liam's been wearing them just over a year, and they've just had their 3rd wash. These are some of the nicest woad jeans I've seen- I love how subtle the fade is:

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Yesterday I picked up a batch of stove enamelled brass pieces, some for the next seasonal production (not out for a while yet), and a few special pieces, in black for the trestle shop:

 

There's a new belt with a black enamelled keeper buckle:

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A black version of the lost wax-cast brass key hook:

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and my favourite, black enamelled brass dice :) :

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it'll be interesting to see how these wear, as the layers of enamel chip off eventually, to reveal the brass

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Wow our jackets do look pretty similar. I'll take a few close ups pics like you did, you'll see what I mean.

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Another worn photo, yesterday we had early thanksgiving for a few friends. Here's the centre-piece, ready to go in the oven:

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an onion, a lemon, a load of rosemary and bay leaves, celery, and a packet of butter inside. Lots of salt and a bit more butter on the outside. Onions, carrots, parsnips, celery, sourdough bread crusts, anya potatoes underneath, thyme on top under a piece of foil. White wine over the vegetables to deglaze halfway through. It was really good :)

 

The shirt's from AW12, made from cotton horse blanket. After repeated washes the red yarn has shrunk more than the white, giving it a really interesting texture- sort of like a seersucker (which used to be made pretty much this way).

 

Happy holidays everyone!

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Some news on the Tender Co. x For Holding Up The Trousers front:

 

Wattle and verdigris versions on the t-shirt, available here www.fhutt.com

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Ceramic buttons for suspenders and something else..

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And a photo from an event I attended in Copenhagen a few weeks ago, including some of our collaboration items.

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Edited by Mvk190
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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for the lack of updates in the last few days- I've been pretty frantic at the factory for the forthcoming production (more of which in the new year!) as well as new things for the following season, and a couple of other special products...

 

This evening a really nice piece went up on the fantastic Maharam site (very much worth some time spent looking around). This is an especially personal one for me, as the author is working on a larger piece about various designers, including my grandparents. I'm really pleased with it!:

 

 

Denim and Clay

by Emily King

 

William Kroll is best known as a small-batch jeans maker. After working for the Japanese brand Evisu, he started his own label, Tender Co., in 2009. He is celebrated among denim fetishists for his use of natural dyes such as purple logwood and woad as well as his elegantly honest approach to construction. Four years on, Kroll’s core business remains tiny but is going strong; yet, when asked about products that represent his current activity, rather than showing me a pair of trousers, he went to his stock (which he keeps at home) and ferreted out a hand-thrown clay plate.

Around eleven inches in diameter, it is made of red clay slipped with white. At its centre is an illustration of a stag created using a technique called sgraffito, which involves scratching through the upper layer of white clay to the dark red clay beneath—Roman frescos were made this way. The drawing consists of a single yet incredibly elaborate line, with the stag’s body built of gestures suggestive of ampersands and its antlers loop edged. The plate is one of a set of three, all slightly different in size and each illustrated in the same style, the second showing a robin in flight and the third the head of a satyr with modest crescent-moon horns.

All three emblems are examples of early 18th-century German engraving taken from Jan Tschichold’s marvelous book Schatzkammer der Schreibkunst. First published in Switzerland in 1945, with an English version produced in 1966 under the title Treasury of Alphabets and Lettering, this volume contains page after page of exquisite examples of decorative lettering. Kroll’s copy is a rare German-language original that he inherited along with several other enviable books from the library of his grandfather, the art director and editor Alex Kroll. Kroll enjoyed an unusually close relationship with his grandfather. As a child he would travel from his family home in Oxford to Alex Kroll’s house on the Fulham Road to spend time together visiting art galleries and absorbing the older man’s milieu. Later, when he was studying menswear at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Kroll lived in the basement of that same house. Alex Kroll was a German émigré of Russian-Jewish origin and his circle included significant figures in London’s postwar cultural life, such as the gallerist Annely Juda and the graphic designer Germano Facetti. Kroll remembers that during the period they lived together, his grandfather took a newspaper every day but changed his subscription regularly. Looking at the world through the lens of theGuardian one day and that of the Telegraph the next, he never allowed his point of view to ossify.

While the illustration on the stag plate is the legacy of Alex Kroll, the object itself owes its existence to another of Kroll’s grandparents, his maternal grandmother. During an afternoon at her house, Kroll noticed some very appealing ceramics that he discovered were the product of a fellow member of her local choir. A professor of English literature who prefers to remain anonymous, this amateur potter agreed to make some pieces according to Kroll’s designs. It was a process of trial and error—Kroll’s first suggestions were totally unsuited to the potter’s skills—but eventually they arrived at the plates. Kroll learned a huge amount about clay in the process and the potter had the opportunity to demonstrate his extraordinary talent for freehand illustration. 

Kroll’s fascination for jeans lies in the transparency of their construction—their selvedge seams and patch pockets—and it is related interests that have taken him into territories beyond denim. Sold through his website Trestle Shop, as well as ceramics, Kroll’s non-clothing range includes a pair of cast brass dice, a cow-horn comb, and an unusually real bear-like sheepskin teddy bear. As with the plates, each of these things was made by a craftsman who, with Kroll’s encouragement, took well-honed skills into new territories. In some cases this has caused pain—the amateur soft-toy maker sewing the fleece bears ended up with very sore fingers as such toys are usually made with fabrics with more give. But even suffering has led to invention. Among the next batch of Trestle Shop goods will be a toy in the form of a humpback whale made of relatively easy-to-sew cotton dyed with Mexican logwood. Although this whale has no direct connection with either of Kroll’s grandparents, it is in the same lineage as the plates. The shape was the suggestion of Kroll’s wife, Deborah, and, in part, it came from tailoring demands to suit available skills. It is the product of family wisdom, curiosity, and a willingness to adapt—all qualities that are at the heart of Kroll’s project.  

Emily King is a London-based design historian and curator. 

The full story's here

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well, it's coming up on the end of another year, which has been a really big one for me personally, but also a great one (the fourth!) for Tender. It's such a privilege to be part of the community here, and I'm extremely grateful for all the support and enthusiasm everyone's shown. Lots more to come in the New Year- looking forward to sharing more products and projects :)

 

merry christmas y'all

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lots of happy BlackBlue customers receiving Tender goodies this xmas!

 

wearing my 129 woads right now. 

 

thank you, william! merry christmas and a happy 2014!

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So yeah my phone is acting kinda weird.. But I was going to put up a couple pictures I'd taken recently.

Here in Florida it doesn't get too cold.. Honestly I've been wearing tees all week and been fine. But this was one of the few chilly days I had last week where I got to pull out my Lambswool sweater. I purchased the natural color with the mindset of if I ever stain it I could always just dye it. But for now, I'm enjoying the white. Though the sizing did take some trying out. Normally I'm a 3 in all things tender but is these the 3 was suppper tight. So I sized up to a 4 which is still snug but fits appropriate for my style.

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I liked this shot just because you could see how the dye is wearing down on these dyed beaverteen 129s.

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This is a shot of some of my Tender gear. Some of my friends comment that I dress like an old chimney sweep... They might be right. The whistle and hat are some of my latest additions. (The bandana is an old hillside Olympic slub that I indigo dyed a while back.)

Here's to another year of collecting more of Wills rad gizmos and gadgets!

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Happy New Years folks. Decided to start the new year breaking in my a pair of a black logwood over dyed 130 in size 3. Usually I am a size 2, but somehow this isn't even that much bigger it seems.

It had been sitting in my closet for quite some time already. Trying to figure out how long. Can't remember. So when we're they released? Anyone remembers?

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nice! enjoy them  :)  those were from the third season- autumn/winter 2011. It'd be great to see some photos- haven't seen those jeans for a while.

 

In the meantime, I've been really busy back and forwards to the various factories, getting the coming Spring-Summer 2014 production ready. Here are a few photos of what's been going on:

 

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nice! Thank you very much indeed, and Happy New Year! Here are my own low-tops, also the same unstained wattle tanned rough-out leather with the same natural plantation crepe sole:

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They were a bit noisy at first, but mine softened and became supple pretty quickly. We have boot grease on the trestle shop, and I rubbed a ton of that into the leather early on, which darkened them a lot (as you can see), and certainly helped soften them, but another leather conditioner or oil would probably also do the trick. As you say though, the main thing is just to wear them a lot. Thanks again!

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  • 2 weeks later...

William, you asked for it. Here you go. Here's my Black Logwood dyed 130. Started wearing it January 1.  Photos are made with the latest iPhone. No filter. On my iPhone it looks true to the real color, but on my computer is looks a lot more blue.

The jeans are looong. :)

 

 

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Wow, that belt is looking great. Mine is nowhere near that even tough I've been wearing it for since I bought it almost every day. Hard to say only by these pics, but I think mine is a lot thicker.

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hello William,

Did you apply anything over the logwood dye to seal it ? I took your last logwood wallet and its inspired me to try myself.  Problem is I now have the slightly dull wax finish and can’t figure out if you used anything for a sheenness finish  I came across Springfield Leather Company's RTC Sheridan Resist Finish ? Which imparts a shininess but can take wax/grease on top apparently.

best wishes

Angus

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nice avatar! and thank you, your wallet looks lovely  :)

after I'd dyed them I rubbed in a lot of our boot grease (here) over a couple of days. It's the same grease that is used in the tanning, so neatly replaces the grease that comes out when the wallet is dyed. 

 

I don't know the Springfield product you've got, but I'm sure it won't do any harm. I made some beeswax polish myself (here) which is probably fairly similar, and it comes out really nicely on the unstained leather. It's more of a polish though, than a grease, so it'll sit on top of the leather rather than sinking into it. If you want to bring up the shine you could try brushing it with a shoe brush, to buff up the wax.

 

Let us know how you get on!

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new trestle shop product just in :)  the idea came from a glass shot glass that my (russian) great aunt had in the shape of a cavalry officer's boot. This boot was made by the potter who makes Tender's ceramics, to the design worn by the elephant on the clothing labels, then lost wax cast in brass- it's got a great weight to it (14oz in fact)
 

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hopefully one day I'll post it in shoes that look better with age! for now I have one on my desk:

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the original boot had to be broken to get it out of the rubber mould in the first stage of the casting process. Here it is now:

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Edited by rodeo bill
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