Tender Co. Denim

[rodeo bill]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

it was a pretty incredible day! and a good night, afterwards, too:

[Coolguyzack]

I really like a lot of this stuff! Looks like a realistic vision of what colonists of the future or something would wear. Really cool of Tender to branch away from typical clothes but not in a ridiculous or exaggerated way. It's all very natural. I like it a lot and now hope to own a piece someday. (That wire belt is so cool)

[srudy]

Ok, William, that jacket in the 4th to the last photo....

 

Where can I get it????  Is that the darted shoulder one from last year?

[Sigur Rós]

Can you tell us more about Sleeper the collection or show us some previews!

And how will Sleeper differ from the original production?

[fineartmajor]

So those pictures are all from the Kyoto Coop? I will be staying in Kyoto and Osaka in early March. Will there be lots of Tender items there? Or are most of the items pictured there because of the pop-up show?

 

Also, any personal recommendations for places to go in the Kansai region? 

[rodeo bill]

I really like a lot of this stuff! Looks like a realistic vision of what colonists of the future or something would wear. Really cool of Tender to branch away from typical clothes but not in a ridiculous or exaggerated way. It's all very natural. I like it a lot and now hope to own a piece someday. (That wire belt is so cool)

Thank you! It's really cool for me, too, to see so many things out in the wild all at once. It's striking how different the same clothes feel on different people, and how people choose to wear them.

 

Ok, William, that jacket in the 4th to the last photo....

 

Where can I get it????  Is that the darted shoulder one from last year?

It's called the fireman's jacket, and it's originally from Spring/Summer 2013- I have it in woad canvas and rinsed denim on the Stores. The guy's jacket above is a size 3, and it was an old piece of stock which Akira had- this guy bought it and was really happy with it! Please email me if you have any questions.

 

Can you tell us more about Sleeper the collection or show us some previews!

And how will Sleeper differ from the original production?

Thanks for this! Sleeper's been out in Japan for a year or so now. There were a few pieces at Hickoree's and Peggs & Son, but they're long gone, I'm afraid, and we've not kept up doing it internationally because the pricing wasn't working out (it's meant to be quite a bit cheaper than Tender, but once it's been shipped round the world it wasn't manageable). That said, I'm expecting to receive a few bits of stock in the next couple of weeks, which will go up on the Stores as soon as I get a minute. There are some photos somewhere back in this thread, but it's a slightly different concept to Tender- Sleeper is straight-up Japanese made reproductions of vintage British Rail clothing from my own collection. It's simpler and lighter feeling than the mainline, and it's not particularly seasonal.

 

So those pictures are all from the Kyoto Coop? I will be staying in Kyoto and Osaka in early March. Will there be lots of Tender items there? Or are most of the items pictured there because of the pop-up show?

 

Also, any personal recommendations for places to go in the Kansai region? 

Yup, that's right. Loftman have 6 stores in Kyoto, all practically next door to each other (some interconnect), and two other standalones in Osaka (one in Umeda, the other's opening at the end of this month, not sure where exactly). The COOP store in Kyoto does have quite a bit of Tender in stock. Some of the stuff above was brought by Akira just for this event from his own stock, and a lot of it's customers' own clothes, but they have one of the biggest selections, I'd say, and tons of fantastic other brands, too. If you do go in, ask for Mr Nakanishi and tell him I sent you! As far as personal recommendations go, I've only ever been to these places with local people, so I've just been pushed around and done what I'm told (happily!). Clothes-wise, Loftman's a must, and I thoroughly recommend Silver & Gold, in Osaka. The American village in Osaka is definitely worth a look, and personally I'll always have a soft spot for the Evisu shops in Osaka, too. You'll have a brilliant time, whatever you do, though. Have fun!

[rodeo bill]

and so, without further ado, here are some photos of the new production, which is just starting to pop up in shops. More to come in the coming weeks, and as soon as everything's shipped out I'll post some more detailed garment photos and stories...

 

photos on the canal at Ebley, Gloucestershire, by Anabel Navarro Llorens, with many thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rodeo bill]

 

 

 

 

[garden gnomes in space]

Hey Bill, any experience stretching your lambswool roll top sweater?  I would love to get like 2-3 more inches in length.  Ive never stretched a sweater before though

[merzbot]

Great seeing the photos from your Japan visit William, cheers!

 

looks like a pair of unborn 132 popped up here - http://le21eme.com/

 

Edited February 13, 2015 by merzbot

[Bobbin]

Will that shoot is lovely! We work out of a narrowboat on a canal and it's idyllic. Really dig the sign-painted logo and detailing too. If you're ever coming through London you welcome to drop by the boat and help us work the terrifying locks.

[rodeo bill]

Hey Bill, any experience stretching your lambswool roll top sweater?  I would love to get like 2-3 more inches in length.  Ive never stretched a sweater before though

Thanks for this. I've not done it on this pullover myself, but with similar items I've had some success soaking the sweater in slightly warm water with some baby soap (if you don't have any babies with soap available try it with just water, but I was recommended this and it worked for me!) then laying the garment out flat on a towel, stretching it out as much as you want, putting another towel on top, and weighing down the ends so it stays stretched as it drys. I got about 3" out of a different pullover with this method.

 

Great seeing the photos from your Japan visit William, cheers!

 

looks like a pair of unborn 132 popped up here - http://le21eme.com/

 

Thank you! Nice catch- I think you're right. I wonder who it is?

 

Will that shoot is lovely! We work out of a narrowboat on a canal and it's idyllic. Really dig the sign-painted logo and detailing too. If you're ever coming through London you welcome to drop by the boat and help us work the terrifying locks.

Thank you! Means a lot, really kind.

[rodeo bill]

As I mentioned above, among many other great people I saw in Kyoto it was a real pleasure to finally meet Hiro, a friend of the brand for a while, but not someone I'd ever seen in real life before. He has a great collection of Tender items, very well selected, and beautifully worn in. I posted some photos he sent me of his woad denim trews draped over a tractor a while back. These are some pictures he sent me a couple of weeks ago, taken in the Cotswolds, UK, where he was studying dry stone walling:

 

 

 

And in Tetbury, walking past a bus stop. The crazy thing is this is 15minutes for me, but we only met up in Kyoto. Funny old world.

[Wu_Tun]

Didn't know there's a thread of tender here. 

 

good luck William

Edited February 16, 2015 by Wu_Tun

[rodeo bill]

^thanks Tom! Wu-Tun's signature link is well worth a look, he's doing some exciting stuff

[BillyHoyle]

The new Tender stuff has started to pop up in places (Peggs and son, superdenim) - excellent looking stuff so far - very exciting, William 

[nizzel55]

Does tender have an Instagram account?

[BillyHoyle]

I don't think so - I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong - but some of the Japanese stores have some beautiful pics of their stock.

[rodeo bill]

^^thanks Billy! N55, nope, I don't put anything online apart from here really- I'm doing this all on my own, and I don't feel like I have the time to commit to keeping things fresh elsewhere. Plus I feel like the shops that stock my stuff (as Billy says) do a lovely job of presenting it, so I'm happy to keep a slightly more personal side to things on here and let other people show the new products

[Graeme]

An update on my Tender collection. I need to get some photos up of the pink shirt too.

 

This is my watch. The strap has darkened up with wear, whilst the back of it has picked up sun cream from my wrist!

 

 

I've got a customised Tender belt that William dropped into a vat of logwood dye. Some of it is starting to rub off, but it's not been as dramatic an effect as I'd hoped for.

 

 

These are a pair of Type 130 "Blackouts" done for Tenue De Nimes a few years back. I've worn them a lot, and washed them regularly. The pictures show the colour a bit darker than they are. The picture of the pockets is probably closest to the actual shade.

 

[Sigur Rós]

Are the jeans over dyed, I like how the yoke appears on the back pockets.

[Graeme]

The jeans aren't overdyed. The denim started off a very blue, almost black, and it didn't fade for a long time.

 

The stitching is tonal, in dark blue.

 

Yeah, I like how the yoke has printed through the pockets too.

[rodeo bill]

Your stuff looks terrific Graeme, thank you for posting! I'd forgotten how nicely the blackout jeans came out... might have to do another run....

[Graeme]

Thanks Will. I wouldn't complain about another run of the Blackouts as mine are now a size too big, and getting a bit tatty. The Denim Doctor has done some patching of the internals to keep them decent.

 

Since I missed it yesterday, here's my pink shirt. It's faded down a bit from when I got it. The colour might even end up as subtle at some point!

 

[rodeo bill]

^looking great! This is another one I've not seen worn in, so thank you. For the benefit of anyone who's not seen this style- look at the faint blue lines running parallel to the button stand on both sides. This 'printers' cotton' is woven for the covering of screen printing tables. When you're screen printing with multiple colours you need multiple screens, and you print one colour after the other. So that the colours line up you match the screen position laterally using marks on the edge of the table, and to line the screens up vertically you use a stripe along the length of the centre of the table. This fabric has that line woven into it as a pale blue stripe. It appears randomly on the shirts depending on the lay of each piece. One nice thing is that it becomes more visible as the dye in the shirt fades (particularly with woad dye- in the new shirt the stripe is almost completely invisible, but I saw a well-worn example in Japan, and the stripes were clearly visible)

[BillyHoyle]

Damn, Graeme - your stuff looks excellent! thanks for posting.

 

How old is the watch strap?

[Graeme]

I think that the watch has been my daily wear for about six months now. The strap started out natural, so it used to look like this.

 

 

I've heard that the average lifespan of a leather strap is around a year. The Tender version feels pretty solid, and I think that it should last a bit longer.

 

Still, I can always get a spare off Will...

[BillyHoyle]

Very nice! Love the way that aged.

Id like to see an aged version of one of the black ones. I'm thinking it might go nicely with a couple of my watches. I guess the aging wouldn't look as dramatic though.

[rodeo bill]

^thanks for this. I'm afraid I don't have a worn-in black strap here. I posted another customer's watch on a black strap a while ago (maybe 5 or 6 pages back?) but it was still pretty new.

 

Here are some quick images from a lovely store I visited in New York a few weeks ago. Linder have been online and carrying Tender for a couple of seasons, but they've only just opened their physical store, and they're redoing their site. They're on Thompson St in the Village, and it's really worth a visit- they have a great selection, including their own really well put-together eponymous label. Very friendly staff, and nice plants too!

 

 

 

[rodeo bill]

Fresh out of a box this afternoon, two woad calico puppies!