Rising Sun & Co

[dawei69]

@ paul T

Thanks for the informative knowledge!!

I was just going with the modern LVC collection to roughly work out the oz system by date... lol crude i know...

But, I've always thought that between 13.5oz-14oz was the true vintage weight rather than 14oz-14.5oz in the later years (so i decided to take the average and made it 13.75oz)

[DENIM SAILOR]

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5654/010vm.jpg' alt='010vm.jpg'> Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/img]

my bandanna from the recent Rising Sun party

[rnrswitch]

That is nice. Were they giving them away?

[DENIM SAILOR]

no i wish , but its my new fave bandanna

[DENIM SAILOR]

my selvege hat from Rising Sun only one of very few made

[joshk1109]

Anyone seen the Rising Sun feature in the Workwear Edition of Mono?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=230487560396&Category=11483&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26its%3DI%26otn%3D2

[DENIM SAILOR]

Anyone seen the Rising Sun feature in the Workwear Edition of Mono?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=230487560396&Category=11483&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26its%3DI%26otn%3D2

yeah the shop looks bad ass! i just scored a red bandanna as well as the blue i love the print!

[attackwithstones]

Hey Denimsailor,

wanna sell me that hat?

if not, where did you find it?

thanx

drew

[DENIM SAILOR]

Hey Denimsailor,

wanna sell me that hat?

if not, where did you find it?

thanx

drew

hi Drew, i really dont want to part with it

its part of my collection but i got it at the Rising sun shop in pasadena ca.

i live about 5 miles from there i dont know if Mike will make any more I can ask or you can call them 626-793-3479 pst.

[rnrswitch]

Just saw this on the Rising Sun website.

!

[Joseph Hill]

I want a poster and a crate. Have to see some fit pics before I lust after the pants (but it seems likely).

[rnrswitch]

So I paid a little visit to Rising Sun on Saturday night for the book release party for "Jeans Of the Old West," by Michael Harris, who is, by the way, a contributor to the collective superfuture knowledge. I believe he posts under Sansome1877.

Well, the night was great. The crowd was great. Food and drinks were free (+++++). Michael Harris had brought a lot of denim scraps and denim jeans that he had pulled out of mines and they were on display for anyone to see. Fuck he pulled them out so that I could see them and handle them. I was handling denim from the 1870s :eek:. One pair of pants that were on display, was also a pair that Michael Harris in collaboration with Rising Sun, had chosen to reproduce for a limited (I think it is limited, not positive though) run of jeans that were released on Saturday night. Needless to say, I had to pick up a pair.

It was absolutely amazing to sit there with an original pair of jeans from the late 1800s and look at the details and then hold the reproduction up and compare the details. Rising sun did not miss a fucking thing when they redid these jeans. The jeans in question are a pair of pants made by the company A.B. Elfelt and Co. Michael believe them to be from about 1877. Below are some pics of the jeans as well as pics of the reproduction pants made by Rising Sun.

Here is a picture of the back of the jeans from the book.

The cinch: This cinch is beefy and the buckle comes preloaded to put holes through your denim.

Here is a pic comparing the patch from the original and the reproduction.

More to come.

[rnrswitch]

The really cool thing about reading this book and seeing the jeans in person is that one gets a sense as to how frantic jeans manufacturers were to make there jeans the most sturdy, or at least, give that impressing. One really cool detail on these jeans is a somewhat modification that resembles the one-piece fly. A little piece of denim was sewn to keep the front part of the fly connected to the back part of the fly.

I love the plain hardware on this. I don't know how accurate these are to the originals, because the original buttons that I saw were rusted to all hell, but there are pics in the book of original buttons that are very similar to these.

The Front:

The Back

Here is another pic of the fly and front pocket combo. The needle work on these jeans is fantastic.

I did not take pictures yet of the denim pocket bags, but apparently many of the early jeans had denim pockets bags. On these jeans the denim bags are of the same weight as the jeans themselves.

Overall I had a great time there. I wish I had remembered my camera. The dudes from Lightning Magazine sure didn't forget their camera. Mike Hodis was a joy to talk with and he loves to share his knowledge of jeans manufacturing as well as his wealth of knowledge on fabrication of fabrics. (He loved my Freewheelers pants).

Michael Harris, though, stole the show for me. He was eager to share any and all knowledge he has of denim history with me. He went through the cinch progression of the various levis jeans from 1874 (I believe) up until the late 1870s. He just laid them out on the table right in front of me and showed me how they moved from pretty small cinches to the larger cinch that became more popular. The man has quite a collection. I would strongly recommend anybody interested in the early history of jeans to buy his book.

Rising Sun and DeadGrass also released a cotton duck repro as well, which I believe has a one-piece fly. After I saw a one piece fly on my Freewheeler brakeman pants I was puzzles as to why it isn't still used. It seems easier t actually put together than a typical two-piece fly. There are some pics of the Duck pants on their website:

http://risingsunjeans.com/

[djarrow]

Thanks for posting switch! Nice details indeed.

The duck pants version looks very beefy as well.

Looks like they used a heavier set of fabric for them.

very interested in seeing some fit pics...

[fardin]

amazing post , those pants look great. love it when they make accurate repros of real old pants. makes me think of warehouse duckdiggers and hellers line. cant wait for the book to come. would be nice to see fit pics.

[dawei69]

Very interesting!! thanks for sharing mrswitch...

This pair probably doesnt work with rest my wardrobe... But I would sure like to buy a pair and store it away.

[Sansome1877]

I had a good time talking with you rnrswitch ( I really liked your pants, that you were sporting) I feel fortunate that the one time collaboration with the Rising Sun, produced such an accurate reproduction of the A.B Elfelt and Neustadter standard pants. Mike Hodis made 32 A.B Elfelt and 32 Neustadter pants (Neustadter pants, come only in Duck made by Cone denim). To my knowledge, these 64 pants are the only ones that are going to be made by the Rising Sun. I'm glad that you had a good time at the party.

[fardin]

the neustadter duck pants loks great too. there are some nice pics on the rising sun page. those julian boots look great too.

[SLAB]

wow, those jeans really look great. Any fit pictures coming our way rnrswitch?

I love the attention to the details! any other reproductions coming our way?

[rnrswitch]

I knew y'all were gonna be askin for fit pics. I will post some hopefully tomorrow or next weekend. I want to soak these to get some of the starch out of the denim.

I can't believe that Rising Sun went through such efforts to reproduce such painstaking details on these jeans only to make 32 pairs of them. The duck pants were beautiful as well. Sansome1877 was wearing them around that night. You could tell from the beginning of the night the duck was nice and stiff and by the end of the night his pants had already began to relax. I wonder if Sansome1877 is planning on wearing his pants when he is out digging around in those mines. I bet they will look great after a few months out there.

[entertainment!]

rnr, posts like those make it worth reading through all the sizing questions on this site!

[entertainment!]

Orvis has the two Rising Sun products on its website, a long sleeve tee and miner's pants:

http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=3K9L

http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=3K63

Not quite as exciting as the deadgrass collection though.

[roy6]

Awesome, rnr. Quite a nice write-up, made me feel almost as if I had been there, which I wish I had been.

The detailing on those repros is amazing. Looks like an alien-art deco hybrid.

I love riveted early Levi-type pockets, but the Elfelt style looks a lot more practical and elegant from a design standpoint.

[riff]

Awesome, rnr. Quite a nice write-up, made me feel almost as if I had been there, which I wish I had been....

Definitely awesome stuff rnr... However, I for one, am thankful that I live across the continent, or I might have gone into massive credit card debt!

[entertainment!]

Did we ever find out how much the deadgrass jeans cost? I try not to go shopping after drinking. Unless I know I am going to buy something and need an excuse to tell my wife.

[Dr_Heech]

Just wanna say Thanks to rnrswitch for the excellent post on the Rising sun repros.

Just awesome. Just think about the possibilities of a niche-market for accurate early jeans reproductions made between 1860-1890!

(well...one can dream)

.

[Rivet Head]

Rep rnrswitch! Those jeans are amazing!

[roy6]

Hey Mike- it'd be interesting to hear about the collaboration you did with Rising Sun- you know, details about where the specific jeans were found that were reproed, the company that originally made them, if there were any legal issues in reproducing them, how the design process for the repos went, what working with Rising Sun was like, etc.. etc. etc.

Unless you already talked about this elsewhere?

[roy6]

Rnrswitch- I can't negrep you right now for "forgetting" your camera, but as soon as I can...

[Sansome1877]

Hey Roy I have some pictures from the party if you want me to send them to you.