Tender Co. Denim

[Aries]

Just received my henley, love it.

[personicus]

^thanks , I'm really glad people are enjoying what I've put up so far.

Here are a few images of the latest belt buckle, which is starting to appear in stores. The 'loops' buckle belt may be a bit more unassuming than the 'hook' buckle, but I'm really pleased with it, and it;s the belt I'm wearing myself at the moment.

I wanted to do a take on a D ring belt, which to my mind have never been quite right. The two types I've seen either have 2 rings held in the same place, in which case the belt holds firm but it gets very fat at the point where the rings are sewn in, of the rings are spaced, which keeps the belt flatter but often means it will loosen quite quickly when it's worn.

The 'loops' buckle belt then has different sized rings. The front one is shorter, and is held tight in the end fold of the belt (this means that the stress of the belt is on folded leather, not on stitches, which is a good thing). The back loop is longer, and has a bigger gap to sit in, allowing it to slip backwards and forwards until it finds its place, meaning that the belt will tighten naturally.

Because they're sewn in at different places though, the belt stays reasonably flat when worn:

Because this type of belt has to double back on itself through the buckle, heavy weight oak bark tanned leather wouldn't be flexible enough, so this belt is cut from lighter, more supple, wattle tanned leather, the same as is used for the wallet and boots.

When I was making up a first prototype of this belt (the one pictured here, in fact) I realised that if I put the suede on the outside, the end of the belt doubling back would mean suede rubbing on suede, which helps the belt grip, rather than leather-on-leather, which is relatively slippy. I like how with a bit of age the contrast deepens between the two sides as well.

I want one.

Really. Really. Bad.

Shoot me a pm as soon as they're up for grabs.

[redragon]

^

I think Unionmade had some in stock already...

[rodeo bill]

thanks for positing, aries, good fit!

thanks redragon, and yep you're right- personicus the loops belt is online at unionmade, should also pop up in a few other stores over the next few weeks- please pm me or ask here if you need any more information

[Festival]

Hey Rodeo Bill, can you post some pictures of the shirt design and the guard jacket, I'm especially interested in the pockets on the shirts. No sites have very good pictures of how they look. Are they meant to be hand pockets? Thanks in advance!

[Aries]

Thanks Bill, also got one of the belts and it's absolutely amazing. Definitely a return customer.

[rodeo bill]

^thanks aries, really great to hear

^^festival, sorry to be so slow on this, I don't have the good camera with me at the moment, but I'll try to take some photos later today

in the mean time, Rob over at Lineage of Influence has done a lovely post with some SS12 details and a bit of a preview of next season as well:

Tender Autumn/Winter 2012 preview

MARCH 20, 2012

tags:

Mens fashion, Tender

A couple of weeks ago I once again made my way to William from Tender’s house for a look at next season’s collection and a chat about where he’s taking the brand. This time coffee was replaced by whisky so my recollection of the evening isn’t as clear as it probably should be (and the images are a bit blurry), but I distinctly remember being shown some cracking bits.

The first new season thing I was shown was a driver’s watch. Simple and small with a Swiss hand-wound movement cased in England and a subtle face sitting at an angle for ease of reading whilst your hand’s on the wheel. It’s a lovely piece, detailed with Tender’s trademark traintracks, simple numerals and a subtle logo placed on the dial, which sits in a brushed steel case that’s complimented with a wattle-tanned leather strap and hand cast brass buckle.

As we’re coming to expect from the brand, another season means a new colour and to accompanying Tender’s signature woad dye, Autumn/Winter’s new tone is a light brown, made from wattle tree bark. When this is dyed over denim it takes the blue to a black, and the cotton sewing threads take on a rich mushroomy beige. Although it does darken down the jeans it’s still subtle and not a heavy black, with the blue still coming through in certain lights.

Shirts have branched out into more fabrics, including English cotton satin, deadstock English-woven cotton horse blanket and Welsh woollen flannels. T-shirt prints are done in a new collaboration with the University of Brighton Design Archives and outerwear includes pieces made up in woollen fabrics woven in Yorkshire especially for brand (I’ll be featuring this more in depth in the coming months).

Also new to the line and something I was especially interested in (as I snatched it off the rail!) is William’s first foray into knitwear. This comes in the form of a crew neck jumper available in two colourways. Knitted in Scotland of un-dyed wools grown on the Shetland Islands, it’s a very warm and perfect for Winter. As with the watch these also features Tender’s ‘train tracks’, this time jacquard woven and running around the chest horizontally.

Edited March 20, 2012 by rodeo bill

[rodeo bill]

and the rest of his post:

Accessories are branching out too, with a new lost wax-cast brass buckle built on Tender’s custom-tanned super heavy oak bark leather adding to this already fantastic range. Deviating from items you wear, and no doubt the biggest departure for the brand is a new range of pottery. At first it seemed a bit strange, but really when you think about the ideas behind Tender as a whole, they fit perfectly. The mugs have been hand-thrown in England and they use a mix of natural red clay and natural white clay, both dug in England as well.

And these mugs follow nicely on to the new accessories led webshop William is starting. The Trestle Shop will formally be opening later in the year stocking some lovely simple pieces, so watch this space for more info on that as and when. Moving on to stuff that’s available now, I got a closer look at this season’s ticking trews, which are made from English striped mattress cloth and also the cracking woad-dyed cotton jacket with real Horn buttons which is the best piece of the season in my humble opinion.

Last but not least is a look at this season’s boots, both in their brand new, natural leather state and after a few months of solid wear. As you can see the leather has darkened to a beautiful colour and the boots have softened, loosing their initial stiffness and become very comfy. There aren’t many pairs of these floating about, but they’re well worth hunting down if you want a pair of boots that are totally different to everything else out there.

For more information on the brand and to find your nearest stockist of their excellent products, go to the website here: Tender Co.

Edited March 20, 2012 by rodeo bill

[redragon]

the first new season thing i was shown was a driver’s watch. simple and small with a swiss hand-wound movement cased in england and a subtle face sitting at an angle for ease of reading whilst your hand’s on the wheel. it’s a lovely piece, detailed with tender’s trademark traintracks, simple numerals and a subtle logo placed on the dial, which sits in a brushed steel case that’s complimented with a wattle-tanned leather strap and hand cast brass buckle.

as we’re coming to expect from the brand

Will be waiting intently for this...

[rodeo bill]

^thank you! it's been really fun. I'll put up details for sure, once it's available

[wgmds]

those shoes are incredible!

[thirdhand]

Must see the watch.

[rodeo bill]

Hey Rodeo Bill, can you post some pictures of the shirt design and the guard jacket, I'm especially interested in the pockets on the shirts. No sites have very good pictures of how they look. Are they meant to be hand pockets? Thanks in advance!

sorry to be so slow- busy lately!

First off, here are some photos of a shirt. This is my own one, and is a prototype, and the body's a bit shorter than in the production in shops.

pleated into the back:

side pockets:

to answer your question, the shirt has 2 large pockets on the front sides, sewn into the side seams. They're a bit high for hand pockets, which means you can still tuck the shirt in, but you can use them for your hands. The idea was more that this way they're big enough to put things in. Also, the pockets are cut sideways, As the fabrics shrink more in the warp than the weft, this means that during the rinse or dyeing (before delivery) the pockets shrink in the opposite direction to the body, meaning that they pull the shirt in slightly at the sides, giving it a bit of a waist, as opposed to putting darts in.

rubber buttons:

these are the buttons used on rugby shirts. They're an alternative solution to the same problem that led to snap fasteners on western shirts. With a rodeo shirt, if the rider got his shirt caught on a bull's horns, sewn on hard buttons would mean he'd get dragged along and injured- snap buttons just pop open. In a rugby scrum, to prevent injury from getting your shirt collar tugged at, the shirt buttons are soft rubber, which will squash out of the button hole if it's pulled at too hard. Tangentially, this is the same reason that police officers wear clip-on ties...

false cuff:

this is based on the cuff of a british railway overcoat I saw (sorry no photo) which had a cuff facing on the outside, but nothing on the inside. Rather than a full cuff, it's just a piece sewn outside, leaving the inner cuff to run all the way to the edge. The cuff is cut directly into the sleeve seam, based on early 20th Century workshirts, and there's a single pleat each side of the opening. The cuffs are cut quite small, based on vintage shirts, personally I like to wear mine with the cuff unbuttoned.

hand stamp:

the washing instructions and logo are hand stamped onto the hem. this will wear off after a few washes. on mine, the face is just about still there, but the washing text has pretty much disappeared. this comes from railway stock stamps inside uniforms I've found, like this:

[rodeo bill]

some bonus spring pictures, since i was outside with the camera. london's gorgeous these last few days, been getting into the idea of gardening

[rodeo bill]

here are a few photos I got sent recently from a trunk show at Loftman, in Kyoto, a wonderful shop who I'm delighted stock Tender:

anyone in kyoto, I thoroughly recommend a visit to these guys

[vespistim]

The watch. Must see the watch.

[thirdhand]

Still waiting for Hickoree's to post the Tender wallet. Might have to call...

[lone airedale]

I just received my Loops belt from Union Made Goods. After five minutes' wear it looks like this where it goes through the buckle. Is this normal?

[Jelmer]

Yes it is, nothing major, also looks beter over time

[kimi]

It doesn't look great to me, especially if thats where it folds through the buckle... but what do i know..

I just received my Loops belt from Union Made Goods. After five minutes' wear it looks like this where it goes through the buckle. Is this normal?

[thirdhand]

I had a similar problem, contacted the seller and william -- They resolved it.

It doesn't look great to me, especially if thats where it folds through the buckle... but what do i know..

[wgmds]

so here's the deal. i'm really thinking about selling my 132s because my current raws are on their final legs/ worn pretty well/ i want a new project, but i think i want a pair of 130s in waist 30. is that possible to find, william? i probably won't be able to get full price for mine, but hey, it'll be more than nothing. i love the 132, but i'm just so damn skinny and they're also 2 inches big on me right now !

[rodeo bill]

^^ sorry for the rather slow reply. There are certainly 130s around in a size 2 (30" waist). In the US, Depending on what dye/wash you're after, hickoree's has them in raw or woad dyed. Unionmade has purple and black logwood overdyed. Lyon State has black logwood dyed.

Speaking of the purple logwood jeans, I realized I haven't put up any pictures. I'm away at the moment, and don't have a sample with me, but here are some nice closeups which the guys at Goodhood took:

wgmds, please drop me an email if you have any more questions

[lance]

love the purple overdye bill, beautiful color!

[rodeo bill]

thanks lance right now I'm wearing a pair of next season's (secret for now, but full story to come) natural colour jeans. As they wear in the indigo blue from under the overdye starts to work through and show up really bright. I'll post photos for sure, once they're a bit further on, and nearer delivery into shops. This purple is pretty bright close-up, on the weft side of the cloth, but is quite subtle from the outside, and will wear in beautifully

[lance]

bill, what do you mean by natural color jeans? stupid question?? thought all of your dyes were natural? thanks

[rodeo bill]

oh, sorry- bad sentence! I meant the new (next season) natural (as always) colour. Every season so far, I've done a natural indigo or woad dye and also a seasonal non-blue natural colour. Second season it was weld yellow, third was black logwood, fourth (current) is purple logwood etc. Yes all natural! Hope that makes sense?

[lance]

ah, thanks, look forard to seeing it

[wgmds]

ugh oh! should i wait? any idea on timing? i'm trying to have a new pair of raw jeans by the summer (june or so?) you're such a tease!

http://supertalk.superfuture.com/index.php?/topic/135363-tender-type-132-size-32-for-sale/

sad sale in order to buy new jeans (hopefully tender!)

Edited April 10, 2012 by wgmds

[rodeo bill]

ugh oh! should i wait? any idea on timing? i'm trying to have a new pair of raw jeans by the summer (june or so?) you're such a tease!

ha! sorry about that. As you know, I have new things coming through all the time, and I don't want to spoil releases by talking about them months before the products are out there. In general I'd say that AW12 (5th production) should be delivering around July/August, so I'd certainly hope you could get something from the current collection.

The purple looks really cool up close, and won't be repeated any time soon. Also the woad dye has improved a lot (I think) since the first couple of lots, so is well worth a look. Plus of course there are unborn shrink-to-fits, which would cover you for a project.

Sorry to see your original pair going, as you say, they're part of the first ever run, so while in general I think the jeans are getting better in consecutive seasons, there's something special about the very first lot. I totally understand though, and I'd love it if you could get a better fitting replacement pair.

thanks again for the enthusiasm