STYLE • THE EYE After a decade in the denim business, Bill Mitchell (opposite right) is unveiling new products in his custom-clothing company Billiam, including knitwear and a women’s collection.
UNCOMMON THREADS W ITH A DECA DE OF WORK UNDER HIS BELT, BILL MITCHELL DREA MS BIG FROM BILLI A M’S NEW HOME IN THE COMMONS
I
f this keeps up, he’ll be big in Japan in no time. Bill Mitchell, the Bill behind bespoke company, Billiam, had a pinch-me moment in February—a customer from Japan flew in to buy 10 pairs of Billiam brand jeans. The fact that Mitchell is the lone keeper of the last of the historic American denim called Selvedge (from now defunct Cone Mills in North Carolina), and makes a stunning pair of fit-you-like-a-glove jeans, might have had something to do with it.
64
MARCH 2020 I t o w n c a r o l i n a . c o m
This surreal moment—in a string of them since he launched Billiam a decade ago—speaks to where Mitchell has been with his true-blue, born-in-the-USA jeans, and more importantly, where he’s going. “This will be a complete rebuilding year for us,” says the 32-year-old from his new space inside The Commons, the 12,000-square-foot community food and shopping hall off the Prisma Swamp Rabbit Trail. “All new products. A whole new way of thinking about business and tailoring clothes for people,” he says. “The main thing I want to get into is women’s leggings this year and transition into a full women’s collection. I want to give people what they have in Brooklyn, but from Greenville. I don’t want to create Brooklyn in Greenville, I want to create Greenville in Greenville and people in Brooklyn will be wearing what we’re making here.”
Sstyled by Tara Ashton
by Jac Valitchka • photography by Will Crooks
