Ask Giles and/or Alex Anything
-
I’ve been enjoying learning about some of the larger more well known denim mills in Japan lately. I was curious about some of the mills that Iron Heart uses. Would it be possible to share the names of some of them? Perhaps the mill who makes the 21oz OG denim?
Does IH tend to use smaller, mom and pop type mills (if there is such a thing) or are all the mills of the same large corporate size like Kurabo? Kaihara or Kuroki seem to be primarily denim focused, but still rather large mills.
I find the history of the mills really interesting.
-
Kuroki makes the 21oz. We have 6 dedicated looms, but getting more (and we desperately need more) has been comprehensively buggered by Levis realising that Japanese denim is actually rather good, so they are monopolising the Kuroki looms, oh and by the way, offshoring to Turkey, Mexico etc etc a few decades ago meant that Cone went tits up, so they cant buy decent denim in the US now. The sense of irony can not be over emphasised, and it is really hurting us.
The UHR was made in a mom and pop house factory, but the mom died earlier this year, so the future of UHR may be no future.
Various other mills make the other denims, but I tend not to be that bothered where the stuff is made as long as Haraki likes it, that's good enough for me
"OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
-
@Giles nice! Thanks for sharing all that. In my imagination I always conjure up images of old, Japanese men and women dressed in hand woven robes laboring over old, wooden looms, tirelessly pulling the bar back and forth, weaving them denim. While I know this is unrealistic fantasy in this day and age, I love the idea nonetheless.
I did a bunch of reading on Kurabo Mills and learned what a gigantic and diversified corporation they are. With ventures in biotech, pharmaceutical, biomass power plants, and so much more. It sort of completely dashed my old world “mom and pop” handmade textile imagery.
-
Maybe this is common knowledge and I just missed it, but do you/Haraki have any ownership or investment in the mills that produce your fabrics? Or are they all independent partners?
-
Didn't know Levi was in the high-end Japanese denim.
Looking at their offer, I fail to understand the appeal for 12oz denim priced at 295$...
Monopolizing the mills for that is a scandal
-
That’s what I thought. As a small business owner, my gut says owning a mill would be one of the last things I’d want to sink millions of dollars into. Seems like you’d have to keep it running at a massive scale and probably make products for a lot more than just the Iron Heart community to make the numbers work.
-
@Slash A "non demim" person was talking to me about Levis Blue Tab. They are advertising is as Japan made and the Japan made is expensive but the collection is probably 10-15% Japan made, similar Japan made denim made up china, rest china / cheap location. I guess they are taking a lot of capacity but there isn't enough for the whole collection.
TLDR - Blue label looked to me that they are marking up on the perception of a premium product from premium locations but mostly it isn't.
-
The ones I looked up were the "vintage" ones where it's stated its "12oz red line selvedge denim".
For the "Blue tab" ones (priced 250$) nothing is mentioned at all, which is probably like you say because its not that noteworthy, to say the least
405$ for a trucker jacket with non provided denim weight, provenance, or nice details, except the global "made in Japan" !
Please M. Levi, make some room for the real deal
