Random questions to which you seek an answer
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I don't get this feckin hate thing. There is no denim brand that I hate, there are some I don't like, some I would not be seen dead in, but none that I hate. There is room for loads of different brands, and some are loved by some and some loved by others. Hating stuff is petty, childish, tribal and immature.
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I know about Mike Harris. I read a lot about Vintage clothes and the history of denim. Still, not my style
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All good
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I think the thing one has to remind one's self regularly is that denim is fashion weather we like it or not. It's fickle and it changes constantly. We tire of things as they go out of fashion and we crave things as they come into fashion. One can be as nerdy as one likes about denim history or denim weave or denim companies, although important, this is mere pedantry. Be part of the society that you live in and reflect that by being in a constant state of development and expansion. Like working with the weather as it changes through the seasons rather than stubbornly fighting against it. Or something.
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Agreed Giles. Life is too short for petty, senseless grudges. Hatred should be reserved for things that deserve it, like Belgians
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I'm not sure it is hate when it comes to Iron Heart. I can see that if vintage or repro is your thing then quite possibly Iron Heart would not be, I also think that it's a reflection of Iron Hearts success, and a perception of saturation in the denim scene of people wearing and showing love for Iron Heart.
For anyone familiar with the street wear scene there were always similar cliques against Bathing Ape and Supreme. As soon as something is perceived as being popular it will inevitably attract detractors.
On the denim scene in general, I like to be educated daily, whether that is about a brand, a material, a designer, a manufacturer, a retailer or just some opinion that I had not even considered. That is what keeps me interested and makes me want to just keep on learning more. I can say with all honesty that 50% of what I was "sure" I knew 12 months ago was complete bullshit. Open mind is key.
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I'll give you an example.
One of my retailers was thinking of stocking Naked & Famous.
He contacted me and asked me my opinion and whether I would mind. My response was that whilst I would not wear them myself, the brand serves a useful purpose and (imo) helps bring consumers into the premium denim scene.
One of his other suppliers threatened to pull their product from the store if Naked and Famous was stocked. Now that is silly, spiteful and way too far up their own arse…..
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Didn't mean that repro is shit. I was just calling it repro "shit". I'm on there as much as you Davito. Everything has to be authentic on there. I also don't like Levis and their pompous attitude, so Mikes work with Levis means shit to me. Lynn Downey acts like she was around when Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss invented the first Levis. I have no time for this.
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I'll give you an example.
One of my retailers was thinking of stocking Naked & Famous.
He contacted me and asked me my opinion and whether I would mind. My response was that whilst I would not wear them myself, the brand serves a useful purpose and (imo) helps bring consumers into the premium denim scene.
One of his other suppliers threatened to pull their product from the store if Naked and Famous was stocked. Now that is silly, spiteful and way too far up their own arse…..
One look at the rawdenim subreddit confirms that N&F is THE starter denim brand. Well, I guess there are some going the kickstarter route. But N&F and Unbranded are the way many people dip their toe in, and that can be only good for higher tier brands in the long run.
I don't call that hate as much as I would stupidity and fearful anticompetitive business tactics. Not intelligent at all. They can at least know who their competition is if they're going to be little bitches.
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When I started learning about good denim, I was actually tempted by Nudie first, but never actually pulled the trigger. It was a good intro mentally into the pricing of higher end denim. I don't think I could have easily mentally made the leap from Lucky Jeans to Iron Heart without Nudie in-between. I like to do my research before buying anything, and my research made it apparent that IH was more the brand for me. N&F and Nudie serve their purpose as an accessible intro brand.
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^Nudie is huge in Australia. Pretty much the #1 fashion Denim. Sass & Bide #1/2 for women, ksubi were up there as is/are bella latino. Seven For All Mankind, Lucky still get up with a specific audience, the rest wear Levis/Wranger/Guess/Gap/Jeans West.
I look at every pair of denim I see to try ID it (mentally it's second nature these days). Have only see 1 pair of APC's who's owner I didn't know in 7 years. Other than that have not see any selvedge denim in the city ever. I work 5 days a week in the CBD and see all walks of life.
The summary is Nudie is #1 down here, and was my personal gateway (almost a thread in itself). Nudie>APC>5EPxSF>SugarCane>Levis>SExSugarCane>PBJ>IronHeart was my journey.
[And I still own every pair except for the 5EPxSF, bummed I threw them out now, at the time they were beyond my understanding of what could be repaired]
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Personally I don't have the time…
I have a Sufu account,just really like the community here and since time is sparse I choose to keep my residence here. -
I have the same denim identification routine; unfortunately in my small town there is one "fashion" store, its name is "the buckle" for those familiar and everyone wears their clothing lines, same shirts, sane denim with gawdy, over done pocket designs, sometimes sequins are even worked in, as well as giant over sized over gauge thread stitching… It's hideous, they are all cookie cutter kids. It would actually be refreshing to see a pair if APC or nudie, even more so yo see IH but doubt it will happen. I'm the about the only one into this stuff around here. I keep quiet and my 2 cents to myself because when I explain they look at me like I'm insane.
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if you life in australia, visit the nudie store…the guys there are legends and besides that great friends of mine!...
I've been twice, back in 2005. Parking's a bitch (or was then). A very cool store tho! How do you know them?
well i've met the boys and girls back in 2008…nudie jeans co. invited me for a 3day trip to italy (bologna) to join them at their "kick-off" (their 2 times in a year get-together where all of them checkout the new collections and all!)...they invited me cuz i've won the wear&tear contest they hosted, with my pair of Thin Finn's (that's why the sufu forum name btw.!).
so like 50-60 boys and girls from all over the globe came to bologna...there were people from germany, france, spain, portugal, finland, sweden, denmark, usa, canada, italy, ... and o/course the aussie guys.
we went to visit the factory, was gifted a pair of raw denim, had a photoshoot and o/course got drunk as hell the most of the time
that was also the time i've met Jens Olav Dankertsen the owner of Livid Jeans...back then he had some ideas about making his own jeans "one day" and now, seing the he really now has his own brand is pretty dope imobtw. just came across these two pics from said photoshoot:
along with the guy from canada
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I don't get hating other brands, either. It's just clothing, so what's the big deal? I've never owned a pair of N&F, because they don't fit me well at all, but I've always admired the company's willingness to try anything in a pair of jeans (glow-in-the-dark! rainbow core! camouflage weft!). There's plenty of room in the world for the full spectrum of denim nerds, from history prospectors like Mike Harris to some SuFu kid rocking raspberry scratch-n-sniff N&F skinny jeans. I don't like it all, in fact I dislike most stuff outside basic 5 pocket indigo straight cuts, but that's just, like, my opinion, man.
As for other forums, I'm a member of SuFu, Styleforum and Denimbro, but I almost never post in any of them, simply because I don't have enough time to visit them all extensively. The IHF is home, and this is where my friends are, so until that changes, you're stuck with me.
