Levi's Made & Crafted

[Paul T]

There's been very little info on here about Made and Crafted; I would like to see more, as I know they've got some great people working for them, and there's a real denim nerd's story behind a lot of the range. I heard, for instance, that Cone were resuscitating their indigo duck for some item/s in this season.

There's not a huge amount of new info here, and it's possible it's been posted before, but just in case here's a story on Made & Crafted on The Reference Council.

[ThomasK]

Revolveclothing has some pieces of Made & Crafted. It's kinda hard to find the collection on the web. that's at least my experience.

http://www.revolveclothing.com/brandpages/LEVISMadeandCrafted.jsp?&d=b

[lance]

Indigo dyed duck cloth from Cone, love to see it! I'll pay their asking price for this.

edit - Unless they distress them!

[kiya]

Sorry, wrong thread.

[setterman]

I had very high hopes for this collection from what i heard from people directly involved with it but all i've seen so far is a few jeans here and there, nothing really special.

I'm not impressed with what I've seen online so far. But, I'm not in the market for modern shaped, distressed jeans. I'm sure there are a lot of fashion conscious individuals though that will buy these jeans up.

[niix]

Doesn't seem to be anything too impressive for the price.

[Paul T]

There is a LVC and Levi's showroom in the East End - I bet they will have some of this range in soon, and I think I have their email stashed away. I'll see if I can take a morning out soon-ish and find out more.

[poly800rock]

they should just bring back the levi's premium....

[Maynard Friedman]

There is a LVC and Levi's showroom in the East End - I bet they will have some of this range in soon, and I think I have their email stashed away. I'll see if I can take a morning out soon-ish and find out more.

Where is it Paul? I'd like to check it out.

[Paul T]

i think it's trade only.. I shall report back.

[devilish]

I've checked out a few things at UnionMade here in SF and I have to say while nice they are not nice enough to justify the hefty price tag. The pre-worn look is also kinda 'meh' on most of the items, if you ask me.

[Rob]

Chimp in Leeds (UK) has a few bits and pieces.

http://www.thechimpstore.com/brandview.php?i=5&p=0

[Paul T]

I've seen very little info on Made and Crafted, wanted to find out more, and last week I managed to get a walk-through of the Made & Crafted range for spring 2011. It was meant to be quick and dirty, but ended up taking a couple of hours - the whole range is a little like an iceberg, for everything you see on the surface, there are many more details to be explained.

Made & Crafted's designer is someone with an incredibly wide understanding of denim, design and textiles which goes way beyond fashion, into the deeper recesses of today's culture. I do feel that really comes through in this collection. At one point he mentioned, "Hopefully, people will realise there's a lot of thought behind each garment" - with luck, a few of the details I've mentioned below might help this happen.

The idea behind Made and Crafted is simple; they are modern, sometimes almost streamlined pieces that reflect Levi's culture in a very refined way. There's a complete story behind each piece, each of which comes over as a reinvented or reinterpreted classic. They sit alongside the LVC range, or indeed Levi's heritage, in a completely different slot from, say, the old RED. The RED pieces were in-your-face, and shouted 'Look at me' - ie, the oversized rivets, chunky stitching, exaggerated legtwist. Here, that heritage is omnipresent, but in a much more understated way.

The end result, to me, is very American, but it's the America of Silicon Valley or the jetset lounge, with some of the subtlety of Prada, the classiness of the Ivy League look, or the effortless glamor of John Kennedy. The end result is completely coherent - but it might be a tough sell, customers might have to ask a lot of questions to understand the vibe.

I was talked through maybe half a dozen items - some of them shown below. Each one has a pretty complete story - I will add a few more later.

A few shirts:

The lining of Made & Crafted chinos, more on these later:

Women's hopsack waistcoat:

The Oxford Button Down

Today, I'll run through the first item in the collection we discussed, namely their take on an Oxford Button Down.

It's probably appropriate we started with this one, because the OXford button-down is an American classic, I guess pioneered by Brooks Brothers. Graham Marsh - the Blue Note album art and Ivy League book author, and a mate of mine - and I have discussed these shirts several times; he's always looking for good versions, as the present Brooks Brothers has fairly indifferent fabric. This is Made and Crafted's take on the classic, and the way they've intrerpeted it gives a good insight into their aesthetic.

Firstly, look at that collar. It's a conventional button-down - but a little streamlined, again, with no buttons visible.

WHy, what is the thinking behind this, beyond the fact it looks cool?

Well, this tiny detail embodies much of the M&C aesthetic, because of the way it reflects Levi's own story. Some of the cues can be found in my own Denim Box, below…

Look at the bottom left photo - a turn of the century Sunset shirt. These early Levi's items, as well as that agricultural, no-nonsense blue collar aesthetic, also boasted subtle, loving detailing. Look at the beautiful hidden button detail on the old shirt…

[Paul T]

…and now see how that kind of detailing is also featured in the modern Oxford Shirt.

Similarly, there are hidden buttons at the cuffs, each of which feature a placket styling just like you'd see on the Cotton Duck pullover or Sunset shirt.

Sorry, by the way for the poor quality of some of the photos, this was supposed to be a quick'n'dirty walk-thru and the lighting was tricky.

Those buttons look cute, neat, but again there's a story behind them - they're made of compressed cotton.

Lastly, take another look at the items in my denim box… specifically, the pocket of the cotton duck pullover. The shape at the bottom is curved - this was actually a very difficult shape to cut and sew, compared to an angular design; folding up the fabric in a curve, then sewing it, is very tricky and demand a high level of operator skill.

THe Oxford Shirt again takes that aesthetic, and pushes it further. Here the chest pocket is almost a perfect semicircle at the bottom - this is tricky to sew, and also gives a vaguer template for positioning - it demands the operator uses their own judgement. Partly for this reason, the shirts are made by a small family firm in Italy.

The shirt is also sewn using a short stitch length - again, this reflects early Levi's items, but is labour-intensive. Using half the stitch length means you spend twice as long sewing. Likewise, there are other details like a yoke loop at the back of the collar - traditional on early Oxfords, this stopped your bow tie riding up.

So, there we are. One simple, button down shirt, a sleek take on a designer classic, but one whose collar, buttons, pockets, sleeves and stitching all have their own story to tell. I was impressed by the sheer love that went into this item, and from what I can tell XX have kept pretty narrow margins on this, given it will sell for roughly £120, and the production cost exceeds other Itlaian-made designer shirts .

AS I mentioned, the subtlety of these designs demands a lot of the customer, and of the retailers, in terms of understanding where the Made and Crafted range comes from. I think it's a great time for workwear and denim fans right now, with companies like Mr Freedom, Rising Sun, Heritage Research and Nigel Caybourn providing new takes on classic designs. I think Made and Crafted have come across a whole new way of interpreting the classics. I'll add a couple of brief explanations of other items in the range over the next few days.

[setterman]

I like the red plaid western shirt. I'm guessing M&C is going to be like LVC.... the shirts won't be meant to fit anyone with an actual chest measurement bigger than 44"?

[Paul T]

Sorry, dont' know, when I get a chance i'll ask.

The box shown is a Levi's sampler case for a travelling salesman from the 1940s. It has relevance which I'll explain later...

[Maynard Friedman]

Sorry, dont' know, when I get a chance i'll ask.

The box shown is a Levi's sampler case for a travelling salesman from the 1940s. It has relevance which I'll explain later...

You little tease...

Will M&C also be doing a pearly monarch range? Might have to invest if they do...Gor Blimey!

[rnrswitch]

Paul, Any idea where these are made. I saw that white shirt on Gilt for about $68 but passed, because it said it was imported. Are they made in China or in Europe somewhere. i know a lot of the LVC stuff is in Turkey, right?

[Paul T]

Here's the item that ties up with the salesman's samples - the Check shirt.

The concept was to reinterpret this traditional, workwear shirt with a new slant: so it's been made in a Madras, a traditional Indian light weave fabric, which feels fine and soft, a cool shirt for wear in the spring or summer.

Again, this is a melding of workwear with that hand-made, subtle aesthetic. Later on, we'll see more bespoke influences too, but here you can see the short stitch length, again the hidden button down and the little yoke loop at the back. traditionally used to tether a tie and open back waistcoat.

Note the triple chainstitch ) and the chainstitch runoff, again that traditional workwear influence.

There were countless more photos I could have taken, but I was pressed for time and didn't want to spam Superfuture with too many details. But in retrospect I wish I had highlighted the slim fit of this shirt and some of the pocket detailing - the pocket is offset from the body - this is found on some old workwear shirts, for you to keep your dollar bills away from your chest so they don't get soaked with sweat, and the diagonal pocket opening was inspired by a Levi's 1919 Koverall. Again, the shirt features a semi placket with covered lower buttons. This, too, has a workwear origin - a placket was used so the buttons didn't get caught in your belt, or on machinery, and get ripped off.*

AS with the Oxford, the workwear feel of this shirt is updated with more of an Italian bespoke feel. One example is the buttons: these are Italian olive wood, hand-turned on a lathe. Then each one is grilled. Yes, grilled, in order to bring out the grain. Those Italians, huh?

Buttons:*

Tailored sack coat

The designer and I chatted for some time about Levi Strauss. Levi most likely only only ever wore his own products or dry good - but not blue jeans. Instead, it would be the fine tailored jacket and trousers - like the Spring Bottom - that were always an integral part of their line (look at some of the catalogue photos on Sansome's thread). This sack coat echoes that part of Levi's tradition - more of what i'd call the stealth heritage of this range, which you have to examine closely to understand.

It's made in Canvas - a traditional workwear fabric, of course, which goes right back to the Duck Youths Overalls that have been sitting in Levi's office for 130 years - but here with a pinstripe.*The fabric comes from Turkey.

The tailoring on this is immaculate. One of the comparisons we discussed is Tommy Nutter the Saville Row tailor who crafted, among others, The Beatles' suits on the Abbey Road cover (except George, who was wearing Levi's, I believe); he'd use subtle techniques like a suppressed waist and higher armhole, to move your proportions up and make you look taller and slimmer. This jacket has that kind of bespoke construction. Note, too, how the pinstripe lines up; the kind of attention to detail I'd expect from my Paul Smith jackets, but not from Levi's! Again, this jacket is made in ITaly by a family of tailors..

A quick shot of the inside shows how the facings are anchored - and we have an internal pocket for your mobile phone.*

And lastly, the concept of workwear is reinterpreted in a modern context. The jacket has no shoulder pads; you can simply fold it in on itself, roll it up, and it fits in your luggage so you can emerge from your train or plane, and put it on, uncreased.

Once more, we could discuss the detailing on this jacket for ages, the pockets themselves are assymetrical and subtly curved, again to flatter the figure… it's full of ideas, but links right back to Mr Strauss.

Once more sorry for the indifferent photos - which maybe don't do the jacket justice, hopefully XX will get their asses together with professional product shots on their website at some points - but I hope they do give more of an idea where M&C is coming from.

I hope I can add a couple more items soon, including what is maybe my favourite, the Chinos. Next time I'll be briefer, but by now, I hope you can 'get' this rather subtle range. The day-job calls...

[Paul T]

Paul, Any idea where these are made. I saw that white shirt on Gilt for about $68 but passed, because it said it was imported. Are they made in China or in Europe somewhere. i know a lot of the LVC stuff is in Turkey, right?

rnr, nearly everything I looked at here was made in Italy; very little, if any, from the US that I know of. LVC tend to use Turkey for the washed or non-raw items, plus the 505 and 557, which feature Kaihara Sanforized fabric. Some of the M&C might well be made in Turkey, certainly it uses some Turkish textiles - there are a couple of important mills there, including Kipas and Orta.

[Maynard Friedman]

Paul,

Thanks for these great updates. Any idea when the new line of M&C will be out or where they'll be sold in the UK? I may be pushing my luck here.

Thanks in advance.

[tri]

Thanks, Paul. Very interesting and thorough discussion on the details, please give us - if you have them - more photos on the details.

[SLAB]

interesting; definitely looking forward to more pieces/info

[ninja07]

great post again Paul, will rep. looks like a lot of thought went into the design and fabrication. love those hidden button downs - cool innovation. and that madras shirt is sick.

any details on the designers and their backgrounds? always interesting to learn more about how they work.

[Paul T]

THanks for the responses, good to know other people love geeking out on this too.

I'm about to post the third (and final) update - before I do, here's another vintage Levi's item that I know was used to inform M&C.

It's the spring bottom pants (in this case, a LVC repro). These are amazing items that to me exemplify Jacob Davis's background as a tailor. Look in my book and you can see the sculpted, bellbottom shape: these were gentlemen's trousers, made in something apparently called 'gold back denim' - the twill used a gold fabric for the fill yarn. Check out the beautiful shaping of the back pockets, the shape of the front pockets, and also the detailing of the lining, etc. (the fact that LVC still often do repros of these insanely esoteric items parlty explains my affection for their work.).

Note also, that in the early days the Spring Bottom and early XX jeans were all single stitched - this gives a distinct look, as does the fact they hadn't introduced the chainstitch as yet. I remember ringring explaining some years ago on this board how this changes the entire look of jeans. I believe all the M&C jeans are produced using this construction; it's slightly more trouser-like, but simultaneously recalls the first 50 years of Levi's.

[Paul T]

THirdly, the chinos.

Chinos have always been a vital part of youth culture - while Neal Cassady wore Levi's, Jack Kerouac was always seen in chinos - but it's rare to see a new take on them. These for me are maybe a highlight of the collection: every facet - the overall shape, the detailing and the fabrics - is so elegantly thought out. They also recall Levi's heritage in khakis, which they've been making for over 100 years.

I didn't perfectly capture the cut, but look at the side pocket shape; recently on SuFu we've had lots of photos of early Elfelt, Boss of the Road, and again the Spring Bottoms, many of which have those subtly curved front pockets, and I can see echoes of that here

Those curved back pockets, with the distinctive stitching around them, are again much more complicated to stitch than straight ones, but they look more refined - and again, evoke Levi's Spring Bottoms.

Check out the texture of the denim - note how different it looks compared to, say, the close-up of the hems

They're just as refined on the inside too - even the chambray is some of the nicest I've seen recently, used here for pockets, lining and as a bias binding. That middle V section, an open centre back seam is similar to that on the Spring Bottoms and other turn-of-the-century tailoring - as on tailored trousers it allows the waist size to be adjusted. Made and Crafted use various denims, from Cone, Kaihara, Kurabo, Candiani, this one is fa 12oz Sanforized from Nishinbo. Sewing is done in Turkey. This is a very subtle denim - it looks quite conventional close up, but from a couple of feet away, as you can maybe see in the rear photo, the twill's far less pronounced, and instead you see more of a subtle cross-hatch pattern. These pants are dry, but have a very soft hand feel.

The hems, like everything else, are single-stitched - this gives them both the feel of tailored trousers, and of early Levi's. This is a conventional right hand twill - but has a soft hand feel and a unique look, which demonstrates how you can't just class denim as left hand vs right hand, there are so many more variables. I would love to see how these wear in.

As you can gather, I liked these a lot. We see so many interpretations of the 5-pocket jean, it's great to see something with a similar pedigree reworked.

* * *

[Paul T]

Now, just a couple more photos and I think that will have to do for now. But my thinking is that I could have picked almost any item from the range and got a similar exposition of the history of fabrics, levi's and tailoring.

Another sack-coat; but in a subtly different cut, completely different detailing, and a selvage twill. Compare it to the pinstripe canvas, and you start seeing how each item is a little story in itself.

The bomber jacket is based on the lightweight L2, the precursor to the MA1 flight jacket ( as beloved by Nick Knight's skinheads and others). Again, this is slimmed down, one layer, two fabrics, khaki on the inside, navy on the outside - Italian, I believe, the same factory that supply Macintosh. THe little leather tab was where you'd clip your oxygen mask.

WE only discussed a couple of women's items, it's outside my comfort zone. But I pulled out this waistcoat because I loved the fabric. It's an indigo hopsack - a 2by2 yarn dyed fabric, once used, literally, for making bags to carry hops, in the 60s it was reinvented for use in fine tailoring. Look at photos of JFK LBJ or SInatra in the mid 60s, and they might well be wearing finely-tailored hopsack suits. Here we have it reinterpreted as a denim. Check out more of those Italian grilled olivewood buttons.

THis shirt was underneath - again, look at the placket, taken from the Cotton Duck jumper in my first post, it make sense today as the bottom of the shirt doesn't get caught on your belt or jeans. (THis reminds me of women's belts I saw, with covered buckles that give a streamlined appearance today, but were used traditionally by autoworkers who didn't want their buckles to scratch auto paintwork). Here, the fabric is a fine poplin, as stark a contrast as you could get with the Cotton Duck jumper - but look at the triangular detailing under the arm, and you can again see its heritage. Same construction.

Again, there's far more I could say, but the day job calls. Thanks to the Levi's folks who gave me these insights into this range. I of course acknowledge that as someone mildly obsessed with the detailing of obscure clothing from the Edwardian era you can expect me to be in sympathy with some of the design aims, but I was impressed with the love, care, scholarship and craft that was in evidence here.

[kiya]

That last pair is amazing, i need to see those in person.

[oboy_oboy]

Paul T-must spread but those are fabulous pics and insights. I'm craving those chinos now--I have a soft spot for chinos, and also subtle interesting variations on 5-pocket styles. So good!

[ThomasK]

Thanks so much for posting! I thinks it's really cool what is going on with Made and Crafted. I hope this really puts them in a profitable position.