Tender Co. Denim

[Uchison]

My crotch of my 130 blew out quite unexpected in a way I've never seen before on any of my jeans. This while I wasn't wearing it every day and never washed it. Strange really...

I'll post pics.

[Uchison]

As soon is I figure out how to post pics, ill do that. But first I need a crotch repair!

[rodeo bill]

^^there are instructions on posting pics on the front page I think. Looking forward to seeing repair photos, too!

In the meantime, here are some photos of the bags and jackets I was packing up on Thursday last week. These are now on their way to shops. The bag's cut from conveyor belt-weight 18oz cotton canvas, woven in England, with a single continuous loop of english-woven cotton webbing as a strap, cut raw at an angle where it overlaps, and riveted. These are dyed with tan wattle and green copper verdigris, or rinsed, and come rubber stamped with the plautus face at the top:

[rodeo bill]

this is a bit off-topic, but on friday last week i had a day in Central St Martins college, where I teach ba menswear denim. i always really enjoy doing the project, but this was a particularly good year, with some really fantastic work. the project was sponsored by H&M's &denim line, and their designer, Jon, was in for the critique on Friday. he's a great guy and really knows his stuff. as well as giving a prize for their favourite collection, they provided various different denims, and H&M rivets, buttons, and leather patches.

I have way too many photos, but here are some highlights, with the designer's name above each photo:

Josh Walters:

Bianca Green:

Sam Adair:

Pedro Silva:

Shan Li:

Sonny Tassell:

[rodeo bill]

Alfie Cheng:

Oliver Lee:

Luke Georgeson:

Boramy Viguier:

Pierre Campo:

Gabriel Castro:

I was really really impressed with the quality of work coming from all of the students, and I'm sure they'll all go far. Sorry for this digression away from tender, but i hope it's interesting- the names above are bound to start appearing over the next few years!

[clayton]

Some interesting ideas here. Not all wearable but I like the challenging of the traditional workwear field.

[rodeo bill]

exactly! you've got to remember that most of the students have never worked with denim before, and for a lot of them it's quite far away from the sort of design they usually do. i think it's an important project though, and it's really rewarding when people who've not considered it before get really into jeans and end up working with these materials and approaches in subsequent projects.

[redragon]

@ 4 months

Great product!

[nachtelijk]

Tender pullover shirt in size 1

don't mind the pose, was doing something retarded aka. jumping for 15 minutes under the hot sun......

[rodeo bill]

^^looks really great- thank you for posting! redragon, thank you too- great leather closeups, and great verdigris forming on the underside of your buckle. More on verdigris shortly...

The results of a little experiment came in the other day, and have just gone up on the trestle shop. 'dab' stove enamelled tender & the hill-side woggles:

I think they feel quite eastery

[Youthxattak]

These are really neat. I even enjoy the pairing of the dabbed woggle with the bandana shown on the Trestle pictures. I haven't been sure of these woggles previously... But this may be the straw that breaks the camels back.

[rodeo bill]

happy easter y'all.

left to right, dyed with red cabbage, turmeric, beetroot

[Ghost Cat]

Posted fit pics of the 129's in the HWDC2 picture thread. They've broken in nicely over about three weeks of wear, and hit that sweet spot at 17 oz. just between being too heavy for summer and too light for winter. I had them hemmed with regular white cotton thread and haven't soaked them, as this particular model is pre-soaked, but I'm expecting the hems to tighten nicely when I soak in a few weeks.

[rodeo bill]

^^ copied it in here, hope you don't mind. fit looks great! thank you

-------

today i took something called a "comprehensive examination". anyone who's taken them knows why i look so tired. two more this week, and then some gardening in these bad tender 129's

[rodeo bill]

^thanks for letting us know post pics!

Here's a nice couple of pages in GRIND magazine, Japan:

(only the mug in the second pic is Tender, not sure what the jeans, belt, and shirt are)

[st199ml]

Little woggle in use holding together an R-by-45 rpm bandana and protecting my neck from the Baltic weather.

[rodeo bill]

^Looks great! those bandanas are lovely. and thank you so much for posting. it's really nice to see something being worn so soon after it was made

speaking of newly-made, this morning I opened up some new sunglasses, hand made from 'mock turtle' cotton acetate. The flat top pair appeared a couple of pages back in a fader article, but this is the first time I or anyone else has seen the rounded version. I think they came out very nicely.

Here are the round tops:

and the flat tops:

Edited April 5, 2013 by rodeo bill

[BillWho?]

Been working on a little backyard project the past few weeks in my off time....

Started off with a pair of the undyed canvas 130's Tender did for Hickoree's a while back....

They now have 4 coats of natural kakishibu dye that I sourced online. The first coat I did by diluting the kakishibu with water as I was advised by the seller of the dye I bought. Two parts water to one part dye. Much too diluted for my taste so all subsequent coats were at full strength.

The dye is a natural plant based dye, like indigo, and in my opinion, smells a good deal worse. A soak in clear water and a good while out in the sun helps immensely after each coat. I painted each layer thick and somewhat haphazardly on purpose. The dye goes on thick and cracks and chips off in the areas of wear in an even more exaggerated fashion than indigo. I wore them a few days before dying, and a few times between coats to shape them a little as i went. It also helped to cause the dye to settle and accentuate areas that will crease or wear. My thought was after dying and wearing a while to work in, these could like like 1900's work pants straight out of a mine somewhere

I thought this little project was appropriate to the Tender ethos, in fact, I was inspired to get started one late night while reading this thread, and obsessing over the century jeans website.....

A few pics,,,

As new

Edited April 5, 2013 by BillWho?

[Quoise1203]

What a beautiful color. Any plans to sell these?

[BillWho?]

Gonna wait and see how they turn out after this coat of kakishibu. They're line drying after a second fresh water soak to set the dye and dissipate the smell. I'll post more pics as developments yadda yadda yadda

[grooveholmes]

I'm not familiar with dyeing, but what would have happened if you had kept the diluted mixture and dipped it multiple times?

[BillWho?]

Kakishibu is a very viscous dye in its natural form. Consistency of olive oil almost. It dries stiff and hard and then chips off the surface very much like indigo does. I could have diluted the dye down and gave them multiple dips to achieve a dark color, and to dye the entire garment through and through. Instead I went for the brushing method at full strength. Kakishibu dye has waterproofing and anti microbial properties, and it not uncommon for garments to be repeatedly retreated with dye after use.....almost like rewarding a filson garment. I was going for the look of multiple layers of surface applied dye. A more rustic approach perhaps. Also hoping that it will yield attractive aging, as the bulk of the yarns are still white underneath.

[Graeme]

Indigo stains from my Tender 130s after pulling them out of the washing machine.

[rodeo bill]

Bill, I'm sure we'd all love to see more photos after the dyes dried in, and as they develop- really lovely, and thank you again

I once helped a friend paint leather jeans patches with a similar dye, building up layers of colour rather like lacquer. They ended up beautiful but they took ages....

Today's new issue of MILK X magazine has a nice page of Tender SS13:

Milk's based in Hong Kong and does some good stuff. Well worth a look, especially if you read Chinese!

[rodeo bill]

^this reminds me, above you can see details of a jacket and a bag in woad dyed canvas. This is a new fabric for SS13 which will be appearing very shortly. On Thursday last week I packed and sent out these:

the canvas itself is 18oz, or number 1 naught, duck, and is woven in England. Here are some photos at the weaving factory, an amazing (and amazingly noisy) place

[rodeo bill]

here are a few closeups:

[rodeo bill]

and a few more! sorry if this is overload, but I really love seeing this stuff

[liquiditytrap]

Awesome, thanks for the pics.

[Ghost Cat]

Brief update on my 129s after about 40 days of wear. Definitely a slow fader, which I'm interested to see after two solid years. I gave them a short hot soak, and the hems shrank up a little bit (which was good, since I had them shortened). I think these relatively light 17oz jeans will be able to stick with me the whole summer. We'll see if the humidity is too much, though.

I haven't had any quality issues with this pair, as others have alluded to. All of the stitching is intact, and all I can do is reiterate the careful consideration put into every seam. You can definitely tell that a lot of work went into the design and execution of this pair of jeans.

[satchelbmoore]

^looking good! thanks for the update.

to further clarify, i don't think blown seems in this manner are 'quality issues' but part of the careful consideration implemented when designing and constructing a pair of tender jeans. for the same reason that we all aren't wearing kevlar or stainless steel jeans (or any other kind of jean for that matter), william has specifically chosen cotton thread because it will wear more beautifully and take on more dye than a poly core thread. while it can be disappointing on a macro level to need to repair a pricy pair of jeans, somewhat regularly, (and pretty much impossible to find 100% cotton thread to do the repairs) on a micro level these blowouts happen in a prettier and carefully considered manner, consistent with tender's philosophy.

in other related news, let's take a moment to appreciate some purple logwood SOCK FADES! unfortunately, only the right sock made it through the laundry this week. upon inspection, black logwood and woad socks did not fade like this: