On Denim Days and Future Experiments
Last weekend we we're at Denim Days and it was a blast. Big thanks to Lucien and Annmarie for all the help in arranging. Shout out to Wouter from Long John Denim Blog for getting in touch!
We caught up with old friends like Ruedi Karrer and (take a look at his Jeans Museum) and met a bunch of new folks too.
Denim Days lives inside an amazing ecosystem: Denim City and the House of Denim Foundation in the heart of Amsterdam at De Hallen. House of Denim Foundation is an impressive non-profit pushing the industry towards a cleaner future through education and advocacy.
Touring Denim City & Jean School
The Denim City campus and Jean School is run by mastertailor Jos. They are educating the future talent of the denim industry. Jos was kind enough to give us a full tour of their facilities. And what talent did we witness.
Through the program young talent gets an opportunity to really dive into the deep end at the industry. Max—a young talent—got to apprentice at Betty Smith and Momotaro Jeans in Tokyo. He even got to hand-weave denim fabric himself.
Craft, Wash, Repair—nerd corner
Denim City is a haven for experimentation with raw as well as washed denim. There's denim art everywhere. Their Wash Master Bowie started as a student in the incubator program—now teaching new techniques to many companies. Washmaster’s office looked like a science lab.
20 pocket jeans. Union Special chain stitch machine talk: key in the raw denim world, but Jos can apparently recreate the je-ne-se-quois effect by hand ;)
The exact thread matching for invisible repairs is next level. @joshua.r4e picks threads so the tears become… gone. He also makes artwork appear on denim totes—patterns reveal over time or when washed or ozoned. It’s super impressive.
Field notes from the Alps & fading
Ruedi hikes in denim in the Swiss Alps, on glaciers the UV burns and bleaches denim faster, while it tans the skins and leathers. The man is a walking denim lab. Give him a follow: @swissjeansfreak and check the Jeans Museum.
Our agenda: research, learn, build
We also have another agenda. We want the thickest and strongest denim there is. We’re experimenting and researching how we can use Raw Denim in future projects. Hint towards the Japanese industry—we’re looking for a collaboration partner from Japan for a backpack with very heavy denim for the folding top part of the backpacks. If that’s you (mills, brands, artisans), drop us a line.
@denimdaysfestival @denimcity_ams @houseofdenimfoundation @jackthedenimpoodel @swissjeansfreak @max_vanhaagen @jozefam_ @wallflower.clothing @joshua.r4e
How you can follow up
- Visit Denim Days next round and say hi—we’ll be there.
- Explore House of Denim courses (from make-your-own jeans to laundry labs).
- Check out Denim City and the Jean School—it’s where tomorrow’s denim comes from.
Stay tuned and thank you for the presentation @jozefam_. It's a real inspiration seeing at what level can things be achieved and done when it's really focused on and it's a real inspiration to our School of Leathercraft as well.
Warm regards,
Michael and the Kasperi team
