Monday, January 24, 2011

IJIN DETAILS : THE SILENT MAJORITY



Everything counts in small amounts....
Phil Ijn knows a thing or two about jeansmaking.The knowledge increases over time & the honesty never wanes .The attention that should be placed on the value of the know-how necessary to be able to even consider manufacturing premium denim can sometimes become lost within the myriad of contemporary denim labels offering their overnight-Heritage wares & faux-Americana, as if they actually had anything to say & had ever been fresh water Bass fishing from a row boat or spent a cold night chopping firewood for the log cabin stove.


The abundance of product purveying more style than content of late provokes a specific reference & honorary mention here, to our best denim friend: the humble detail.
All prestige jeans makers place equal emphasis on every step of the assembly process. Stitching is in fact the mainstay of denim & therefore requires the foremost attention.Phil Ijin has a specific stitch count & thread size for every element sewn on an Ijin garment. Real indigo dyed thread is a stalwart item: fading back as the denim is ''seasoned'' in gradual & natural steps. Bar tacks are of a certain length , that is to say , longer than the actual belt carriers it aims to reinforce.
These elements are the Silent Majority of jeansmaking & the most often overlooked indigo brass tacks.

And lest we forget that jeans are fundamentally linked to the rivet. After all, the patenting of the rivet originally lead to the birth of the jeans ''brand'' , long before denim labels actually existed. So , pay homage to the grommet. Phil Ijin uses the genuine article ''wash & burr'' sold nail ,real copper rivet which splits & spits the denim cloth out of the top in tufts that act as a guarantee that you are holding the real McKoy in your hands.
The importance of the ''detail'' is what jeans making is all about in & failure to incorporate the small particulars means inferior end results to the final item. And dressing denim up in Lumberjack disguise only raises questions of authenticity & authority.
Premium denim means exactly that , so remember the moral of the story : the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

** Disclaimer: Phil Ijin would like it known for the record that he has never ever indulged in sitting around a campfire tying knots for animal traps or been seen firing a Blunderbuss at a Moose at dawn on a misty moor.
Phil Ijin: Authentic Premium Jeansmaker

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