chicote

In thinking about this, I also consider the brands’ sewing machine operators.. I know that many brands here focus on extremely accurate reproductions, but perhaps this late trend to amplify stitching ‘errors’ is an emergence of the latent artistry of the sewers themselves. I know for myself as an artist, if you put me down in front of a flower and ask me to draw it, I’ll tend to over-emphasize the curviness of the leaves and the shading of the petals over all else. That’s my own deviance from realism that I’ve found emerged subconsciously from my own artistic practice over the years, and it’ll surely be different from that of the next artist who comes in to draw the same scene. I think you can make a strong case that the sewing work done for these brands is more like factory work than like art, but I do wonder if in designing these repros whether the people assigned to come up with the sewing pattern don’t relish the chance for a little extra wonkiness, their creative touch in an industry that for the most part seemed quite a bit more rigid in its techniques. Totally not basing this off anything, just a speculation!

I picked up a book of porcelain enamel signs for signpainting reference material, and was surprised to see several denim / workwear brands represented! Interesting that many of them have been revived in Japan as well.

Worst case scenario @Broark, the SE Austin guys can probably build you a small apartment behind the shop...

I really like the one back pocket and overall design details, but am a little disappointed by the stated measurements... a 20cm leg opening in my size sounds ridiculously small (though i know it'll be a little bigger after a hem), and i would have also preferred an extra 2-3cm in the rise. i have several pairs of jeans that all have 28-30cm front rises and don't find that height comfortable or flattering, for me at least. But I am very curious about the denim and would probably still consider a pair if this is indeed the proposed pair TCB wants to use for the contest. Does anyone have any confirmation on whether that's their intention?

edit: i'll add that the most recent viktor's voice collab (good luck jeans) are much more up my alley. i would love to do a contest with those, lol!

Damn, I love those… really wish I got a pair way back when. Looking great @MJF9

I do it because I use a weird browser that sometimes doesn’t give me any other options… i acknowledge the risk I’m taking by sending such an ambiguous message but trust the recipient will intuit my good intentions and take it as it is… as they say, all rep is good rep…

I saw that too!! Pretty much exactly what I was hoping for 😊 can’t wait to see more details!

5 minutes ago, Georg said:

tcbjeans.myshopify.com is fake, right?

No, that's the official TCB online store. If you go to TCB's official blog / main website  and click on the shop icon on the top right, it takes you to their shopify site.

beautiful work duke!!

7 hours ago, Duke Mantee said:

He’s a good guy - but he’s cycled through some amount of clothing. Items seem to be getting sold weeks after purchase 🤷‍♂️

i don't blame the guy... just trying to fill the sufu-sized void in his heart 

There used to be a million of them on Yahoo Auctions Japan... guess they have sort of dried up. Here are two I've found. I've contemplated a ring coat many times over the past decade and run into the same issues with sizing, but my intuition tells me they are just sort of amorphous. I'm in full support of you getting one!!

Black moleskin , size "S" which is usually 1.

Dark emperor version, overcoat length with massive hood, looks like navy melton wool, size M

@Hopethisoneisnttaken thank you! it’s all by hand, it took a few weeks of nightly work and im glad it’s over!!

Finally got around to patching the knees on my cane’s.. the right knee tore through again while i was stitching the first patch, lol

I have always loved all types of marbling and am surprised to see so many people against it! I’m curious if anyone can elaborate on their position a bit more?

for me, I have always loved the way a big “marble” crease imprints itself into the fabric, it’s like the spirit of the fabric fighting through the indigo that’s smothering it… plus it’s usually totally absent in artificially faded jeans but quite common in handmade & naturally dyed fabrics and I feel is a characteristic I strongly associate with the latter. It’s the main reason I love tender’s standard denim so much… it just longs to speak its mind regardless of what the wearer does to it… it’s amazing!!!

Tender 129 is an excellent choice, highly recommended!!

@lobster_for_lunch I wonder if that’s from the set of my beautiful launderette, one of my favorite movies of all time!!

Im down!!! I would love for them to do something old and obscure like a levis 333 or rly early bluebells… but I trust the pair they have in development is gonna be cool no matter what!

thanks for sharing the post!! i'm not really on ig so it's nice to see photos. i mailed the jeans back several weeks ago, and am really happy they get to be on display in their studio.

as for what pair they might have for the next contest, i guess we'll have to see what jeans they plan to produce down the line. the post made it sound like they want someone from sufu to take the lead on organizing, so maybe we could make suggestions on a pair we'd like & try and drum up interest from there?

shred i'm in seattle n would be happy to repair your jeans if you'd like! i don't have an industrial darning machine but have gotten pretty good results with my 40s singer. let me know!

^That's what it looks like to me as well. I had puzzled over measurements I'd seen on the 125 as the rise looked hardly different than the 132, but again, sometimes subtleties of cut can give two garments w similar measurements entirely different fits...

happy birthday to both of you!!

Those look great!! Thanks for documenting your process and sharing it here, it's inspiring.

@mpukas sorry bout that, i realized i've had my jacket for close to 10 years now and figure they might not make the same style anymore. this one is sort of close, maybe? 

@mpukas tenderloin might be a good brand to check out, i have an excellent carhartt repro of theirs.

I am curious, what leathers do you all have & like in your black engineers? I'm now at the 2-year point with my CXL Flat Head engineers and have to say i wish i just saved up for horsehide. There was a sweet spot about 6mo-1yr in where they looked good, but kind of stopped aging gracefully and went straight to looking kinda thrashed. cxl seems a bit too dainty for a pair of boots.. I don't know if that's why many here don't prefer it but i should have listened!

It reminds me of a philosophy ive been trying to put into practice re broarks dilemma... when faced w a bunch of different options, it's often worth the extra money / time etc to try and get the thing that you really find perfect, or that tugs at your heart a little more than the others... if you don't you'll end up with a very nice thing that you'll only have a superficial relationship with & maybe won't be able to commit to as easily. Of course, things can grow on you with time, but i think you can never go wrong putting in the extra labor to get the boots you won't have a problem keeping with you forever.