Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.

[ATWM]

@Well27 I’m a big fan of both Tender and (some of) Kapital, but part of what makes them what they are is that there are not other makers with the same style. The other brand that is more in the denim world is of course 45R, but internationally quite pricey, so I’ve avoided. A lot of (Western) stores that carry the Kapital etc are the best bet for other makers in that realm - some are Story Mfg., A Kind of Guise, Arpenteur … there are more. I’m not a big fan of them though, or rather would rather Tender or Freewheelers.

A very nice workwear inspired French brand is de Bonne Facture. Pricey but sometimes more easily available, and all or mostly made in France - I like some of their stuff and have a some of their trousers.

A few others I like (again, for select stuff…I wouldn’t say I’m a fan of the overall vision) are Blue Blue Japan and Cottle. Cottle is expensive to the point of laughing, so I haven’t looked for a few years but always sort of liked the approach. 

My other favorite is Inis Meain - specifically for wool and linen - some of the best knits I’ve come across. 

Edited May 23 by ATWM

[MJF9]

@Well27 Buaisou is also worth a look

[tooth]

@Well27 There’s a shop here in the town I live that has a penchant for this style… I can say that the labels they carry are great, and if you’re looking for interesting fabrics, dyeing techniques, laid back loose vibes they may be worth checking out. To name a few: Taiga Takahashi, EG, Herill, Auralee, Camiel Fortgens, Monostereo, Niceness, and as previously mentioned by @ATWM Cottle and Story Mfg. (and, yes, prices are out there…).

I don’t own any pieces by these brands as they don’t really resonate with my ‘style’ (or lack there of, honestly), but I certainly appreciate what they’re doing.

[ATWM]

I’d also mention the shop in my town  - it’s too funky for me by half a lot of the time, but it’s also one of the best small men’s shops in my region of the country, much better than a college town shop has any right to be. It’s honestly better than any shop even in Chicago to my mind - but when it comes to denim that’s not their overall strong suit. They stock Kapital and will be stocking Tender though. It’s fun to look at what they curate and a look through their brands might reveal something. 

[MJF9]

@Well27 Tezomeya for natural dyed products... their t-shirts are excellent imo

[Double 0 Soul]

8 hours ago, tooth said:

@Well27 There’s a shop here in the town I live that has a penchant for this style… I can say that the labels they carry are great, and if you’re looking for interesting fabrics, dyeing techniques, laid back loose vibes they may be worth checking out. To name a few: Taiga Takahashi, EG, Herill, Auralee, Camiel Fortgens, Monostereo, Niceness, and as previously mentioned by @ATWM Cottle and Story Mfg. (and, yes, prices are out there…).

I don’t own any pieces by these brands as they don’t really resonate with my ‘style’ (or lack there of, honestly), but I certainly appreciate what they’re doing.

Some nice garb there @tooth .. i like this style, my neighbours daughter and cat sitter is the embodiment of it.. lots of layers, lots of hand dying, lots of patching and repairs, lots of linen and shapeless knitwear.. i used to love looking at their washing line on her laundry day but rather than expensive brands, her style is either vintage or re-cut vintage where she has bought oversize menswear, unpicked the pattern and cut/sewed it into something that works for her.. alas, she now lives in a yoga retreat in Wales where she works as a gardener... 'gardening, commune, yoga, mindfulness chic'

[Well27]

Thanks All for some very good input! 
I’ve come across one or two of the brands mentioned, but a lot of new ones mentioned

[Maynard Friedman]

4 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

i used to love looking at their washing line on her laundry day

I’ve heard about people like you…

[redragon]

5 hours ago, Well27 said:

Thanks All for some very good input! 
I’ve come across one or two of the brands mentioned, but a lot of new ones mentioned

Visvim is should definitely be in the same conversation even though their price point more closely resembles designers clothing of high fashion...

[merzbot]

20 hours ago, Well27 said:

A while back Double 0 was ranting about not currently having brand or style he found interesting for his age group (please correct me if I remember incorrectly)

but I was in a similar rod before I found SuFu/denim but also style-wise.

now that I’ve come across Tender (learned about here), some nice Kapital pieces in the WAYWT threads and Hansen Garments (finally having enough money to by a piece once in a while), the brands have have really gotten my interest with that kind of aesthetic - lose but tailored, a focus on the fabric and a slightly “bohemian”-vibe

So my question is, what kind brands are there with the same kind of style?

maybe enginered garments and kapital, but are there others I’m missing?

This article is well worth a read:

Inside the Other Paris Fashion Week | GQ

Of the brands/designers mentioned, I'd guess Man-tle and Evan Kinori would be right up your wicket. They both make use of small batch/one off/deadstock textiles (though EK seems to be working to develop his own fabrics now). The aforementioned Tender does this to great effect with the Weaver's Stock garments. While you'll see the same patterns/designs from these brands reappearing over the years, the use of deadstock fabrics gives each collection an ephemeral nature. 

Neighbour stocks most of the brands mentioned in this discussion:

Shirts Mens – Neighbour

Also, @tooth big up to BlkBlu!

Edited May 24 by merzbot

[reallypeacedoff]

The other day, I saw a post no bills sign at a construction site and it brought up a memory I had long forgotten, which, now that I think about it, is kinda funny. When I was a kid, I didn't grow up with huge amounts of money but also, was just a kid so having one pair of jeans, one pair of shoes, one hat, was normal to me. You wear out your shoes, you replace them. Wear them out. Rinse and repeat. Well, PNB Nation (Post No Bills) was a hip-hop company—that did raw denim (I now realize). I picked up a pair as I needed a new pair, they were on sale and I wasn't overly fussy. Anyways, it is funny to me that after a good few years of wearing them, I now know that I was into raw denim before I realised I was into raw denim. I distinctly remember my mom telling me that it was time for a new pair but I told her they were just starting to look good, the thighs were white and had holes in the knees and wallet fade and everything. They were black denim too. I didn't know why they looked good, in the sense of raw denim but I knew they looked good. I recently looked up on eBay to see if there were any still around and low and behold...Brought back so many memories, I distinctly remember the inside waistband graphic, and the stash pocket and "hammer" loop.

[Double 0 Soul]

I've never been to the gym (too much testosterone and HGH for my liking) or really done any exersize.. surely not 00, you're like prime beef? .. i know right, but it's true .. i've just tried to lead an active lifestyle.. anywho, i've never had the desire to be strong or muscular, i just don't want to put on any weight as i get older.

I perish the thought of a beer belly although i do love a good beer, i don't really want to revert to 0% it just seems like all of the sugar but non of the fun.. i'd rather have a juice.. so in my quest to alter my drinking habits, i started to drink red wine.. i don't really like wine so i thought i would drink less of it

I digress.. because i know fk'all about wine, i've enlisted my friend who lives in France (he basically moved there for the wine) in an advisory role.. i still know fk'all about it but he sent me this yeserday.

https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/04/02/hidden-under-a-chicken-coop-the-louvre-of-wine/

The video starts at the 37min mark the rest is just bollocks.. this energetic 80yr old Frenchman has amased a collection of €50,000,000 of wine which is just burried in his back garden in rural France, the story is beyond charming

[smoothsailor]

You’d mingle right in with natural wine crowd Neal 

[Geeman]

First it was M&S now it's f**king wine bats! 

It'll be salmon trousers soon...

This once great forum 😉

[Maynard Friedman]

I think @Double 0 Soul is a Lambrusco man

[Geeman]

 

Lambrini.....

(its not a wine, its a perry )

[Geeman]

7 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

I've never been to the gym (too much testosterone and HGH for my liking) or really done any exersize.. surely not 00, you're like prime beef? .. i know right, but it's true .. i've just tried to lead an active lifestyle.. anywho, i've never had the desire to be strong or muscular, i just don't want to put on any weight as i get older.

I perish the thought of a beer belly although i do love a good beer, i don't really want to revert to 0% it just seems like all of the sugar but non of the fun.. i'd rather have a juice.. so in my quest to alter my drinking habits, i started to drink red wine.. i don't really like wine so i thought i would drink less of it

 

I'm the same but chose Whiskey/Bourbon

[Maynard Friedman]

I just fell into line with all the Prosecco mums

[Double 0 Soul]

3yrs later and it’s still used almost daily @LazyS

[LoneWolfWelding]

On 5/15/2025 at 4:03 PM, Double 0 Soul said:

It seems we've had a recent and very much welcome expansion to our group of online denim-misfits.. @okimoto @Lorcan @Well27 @TripicalMidbooster @LoneWolfWelding and others.. (a belated welcome to the forum) but i can't help but wonder.. this doesn't seem like your first rodeo, have y'all come here from other denim fora or have or just been lurking for the last decade?

Sorry for the late response. I’m not exactly sure how I stumbled upon this forum but I was lurking for a few months before I decided to post. I don’t use any social media but I like this little community. I’ve definitely learned a ton about denim since joining 

[wmb]

going through the jeans I have - organizing etc and realized that these things will be around long after I am gone.  I have some Levis that are 30 years old.  I may last another thirty but probably not!

[Double 0 Soul]

Now the 90s revival is well and truly over and we move into the year 2000, fwiw... according to my DB post in the What's Next? thread . . i first noticed signs of the 80s giving way to the 90s in June 2017, so we've had a good 15yrs of this continuing rehashed nostalgia..

 

So.. What are you looking forward to from the coming decade?.. I know i'm keen for my vast collection of Von Dutch caps which i bought from Hip in Leeds to become fashionable again 

 

I got some spam from End last week regarding their exciting restock of terrible 2000 era sneax..

 

 

 

i'm sure as shit i wasn't wearing these^ in the 2000s!.. the only folks who currently do are either fucked up spice-heads who haven't bought any new shoes for 20yrs because of their battles with addiction, folks fresh outta prison or clueless 'comfort at all cost' dad types.

 

But as the 2000s revival inevitable comes to an end in 8yrs time, and us 2009 era guys have our moment in the sun... how will this play out, will we look cool-retro, strutting our stuff with the teenagers or will we look more, land that time forgot?.. like those middleaged men you would see in 2012 wearing skintight stretch denimz.. maybe our extensive knowledge will redeem us.. "check out my rugged, heritage, denim-steeze i saw on an alarmist YouTube thumbnail" ..  Well i was dressing like an urban lumberjack before you were even born.. "corse you were pops!" .. 

 

With the death of creativity and the onslaught of AI.. will this nostalgia loop ever end? .. so what's going to come after the 2010 revival.. will it be the 80s again? 

Edited June 5 by Double 0 Soul

[smoothsailor]

I notice early 90s

edit, reading (or writing) not my strong point, that’s why I like pictures.

in the early 90s there was a bit of a hippy revival. Maybe 90s does sixty/senty revival, mixed with 2025 silhouette.

 

Edited June 5 by smoothsailor

[Double 0 Soul]

The second summer of love / hippy revival was at the end of the 80s over here.. like 1988.

Feet 3 High and Rising came out in Feb 89..  the hippy revival started the previous summer.. but yes, it rolled over into the 90s, i'm sure i still had beads around my neck when i went to see The Doors film in 91.

What are your memories of the early 2000s Paul? .. for me i was in flux between baggy-ass skateboarder jeans, vintage Levi's,  slightly smarter Silas jeans or LVC...

For the highsteet clones, it was G-Star Raw, Diesel, Twisted Levis, or Evisu 

For the more fashion focused, it was Vivienne Westwood.

Edited June 5 by Double 0 Soul

[ATWM]

Early 2000s revival?! 
 

I thought we were all here because it’s sometime between 1920 (or 1890) and the early 1960s all day every day, and we prefer it that way.

but I don’t think it works like that in recycling decades anymore, it’s more like time has collapsed and everything from all times is always happening - a fashion plurality, if you will. Thanks internet.  &nbsp
Yes the 90s has been a bit of the stronger thread but - at least if the kids on massive college campus near me are anything to go by - the 60s, 70s and 80s are still in style. Skinny jeans still abound even, but seem to be stuck more on professors and grad students. 

 

[Maynard Friedman]

It’s all silver suits, bubble helmets and hoverboards around my way. 50s/60s retrofuturism is BIG. Think The Jetsons.

[PrettyBoyTony]

4 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

Now the 90s revival is well and truly over and we move into the year 2000, fwiw... according to my DB post in the What's Next? thread . . i first noticed signs of the 80s giving way to the 90s in June 2017, so we've had a good 15yrs of this continuing rehashed nostalgia..

 

So.. What are you looking forward to from the coming decade?.. I know i'm keen for my vast collection of Von Dutch caps which i bought from Hip in Leeds to become fashionable again 

 

I got some spam from End last week regarding their exciting restock of terrible 2000 era sneax..

 

 

 

i'm sure as shit i wasn't wearing these^ in the 2000s!.. the only folks who currently do are either fucked up spice-heads who haven't bought any new shoes for 20yrs because of their battles with addiction, folks fresh outta prison or clueless 'comfort at all cost' dad types.

 

But as the 2000s revival inevitable comes to an end in 8yrs time, and us 2009 era guys have our moment in the sun... how will this play out, will we look cool-retro, strutting our stuff with the teenagers or will we look more, land that time forgot?.. like those middleaged men you would see in 2012 wearing skintight stretch denimz.. maybe our extensive knowledge will redeem us.. "check out my rugged, heritage, denim-steeze i saw on an alarmist YouTube thumbnail" ..  Well i was dressing like an urban lumberjack before you were even born.. "corse you were pops!" .. 

 

With the death of creativity and the onslaught of AI.. will this nostalgia loop ever end? .. so what's going to come after the 2010 revival.. will it be the 80s again? 

I've got some Mizuno's out for delivery right now that I'm thinking might be more 2000s than I had realised. I'm starting to settle into the 'comfort at all costs dad type' and I'm concerned there may be no way back

[Double 0 Soul]

1 hour ago, ATWM said:

Early 2000s revival?! 

but I don’t think it works like that in recycling decades anymore, it’s more like time has collapsed and everything from all times is always happening - a fashion plurality, if you will. Thanks internet.  &nbsp
Yes the 90s has been a bit of the stronger thread but - at least if the kids on massive college campus near me are anything to go by - the 60s, 70s and 80s are still in style. Skinny jeans still abound even, but seem to be stuck more on professors and grad students. 

 

Yes and No over here..

No.. There definitely has been a strong 80s and 90s revival for the cool kids / vintage shoppers.. which even followed the same cycles.. late 90s revival followed early 90s revival which followed late 80s revival.. i don't remember an early 80s revival, first i remember was young women wearing puffball skirts in the late 2000s

..but Yes.. fashion became a helluva lot more generic after the death of the fashion tribes when you could just go to Primark and buy the look straight off the hanger.. i'll be a goth today, cowboy tomorrow, country gent on Saturday, grunge on Sunday.. or even worse i'll just blend into the background and shop at Gap or A&F.. 🤢

The industrial quarter where i work has been engulfed by international student accommodation for the last decade.. so most students i see are wealthy Beijing kids who're very label focused.. they have absolutely no sense of style whatsoever but heavy branding is key to their look.. Canada Goose jacket, Gucci tee, Balenciaga jog bottoms tucked into Dr Martens or Yeezy slides.. like diehard hypebeasts from 2010.

I went to H&M last week to get my kid a white tee for 't-shirt signing day' at school.. and no shit, they had 7 different flavours of white tees in stock, dotted around the store, ranging from £6 to £12.. a few pale blue chambray shirts and some very bland neutral colours.. where was all the vibrant summer clothing? .. it was as dull as fucking dishwater! .. even tech bros look more interesting.. like it was AI generated 

So what were you all wearing around the millennium? 

Are you looking forward to any of it coming back?

Edited June 5 by Double 0 Soul

[ATWM]

1 hour ago, Double 0 Soul said:

so most students i see are wealthy Beijing kids who're very label focused.. they have absolutely no sense of style whatsoever but heavy branding is key to their look.. Canada Goose jacket, Gucci tee, Balenciaga jog bottoms tucked into Dr Martens or Yeezy slides.. like diehard hypebeasts from 2010.

This contingent seems to be an international phenomenon - or at least very widespread- at least in my limited experience. It exists where I live and in many places I’ve seen. 

 

1 hour ago, Double 0 Soul said:

So what were you all wearing around the millennium? 

For better or worse I wasn’t much different from right now. I wore the same Birkenstock Bostons or more low profile/understated skate shoes. I never wore runners casually - probably because I ran competitively and they were shoes for a specific purpose for me, always. Main difference now is I much more often wear nicer leather boots or shoes.

As far as the rest of it, still jeans and a t shirt/sweatshirt most of the time - similar cuts even. I never went into the skinny thing, always hate stretch in my pants even before I knew what raw denim was. I had some corduroy Sherpa lined type 3 off by a skate brand called Matix and a twill chore from a cheap mall brand. Main differences now is the jeans are nicer,  I have more jackets which are mostly denim not corduroy and (on some days) the sweats are nicer loopwheeled versions, but on many days no - and both of them have logos or designs on them much less often than used to be the case. Oh, and in the winter more wool pullovers, for sure. But again, just sort of a nicer version of what I wore 25 years ago. 

[Double 0 Soul]

Thanks Aliens.. Don't be shy people, we won't will laugh 

Here you go guys.. "It's On The Socials"  it'll be mainstream before you know it

https://www.rokit.co.uk/collections/vintage-y2k-clothing?srsltid=AfmBOoqcCZSwIEMs6V9_vyEvoJS6owMBjwm_yzt39zGHcX9AkFYgdjCe

https://y2kdream.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoqHAzyVsJXhyC_5jbQMrZLooYrvntJI9KHwQGuExpIK4NfIrOb3

According to Vogue.. "The Y2K fashion revival will never die" 

This is what we'll all be wearing in the coming years..

Maybe i need to reassess my black / blue standpoint?

Edited June 5 by Double 0 Soul