Journal de Nîmes Nº 0 by Tenue de Nîmes

Journal de Nîmes Nº 0 the premier issue november 2008 (e)paper for A Denim inspired boutique www.tenuedenimes.com -

THE FOUNDERS of tenue de nîmes p2

Tenue de Nîmes PRIVATE label p6

Camino sucio by yamandu p 16

Denim prophets They didnt invetd denim, they reinveted it. A portrait of the 3 most outstanding denim people p8

The boutique & The Opening

brands & products, private presale and the grand opening for l’equipe de nîmes p 14 & p 4

JOURNAL DE Nîmes / Nº 0 the premier issue november 2008

Tenue de nîmes elandsgracht 60 1016 TX in Amsterdam the netherlands +31 (0) 20 320 40 12 www.tenuedenimes.com info@tenuedenimes.com

we are open monday thuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday sunday

10/18 10/18 10/18 10/21 10/18 10/18 12/18

colophon concept & design Joachim Baan / www.anothercompany.org photography yamandu roos / www.yamandu.org Momotaro Jeans joachim baan illustrations Emile Pen / www.mrpen.nl copy menno van meurs ©2008 www.tenuedenimes.com

JOURNAL DE Nîmes / Nº 0 the premier issue november 2008

Tenue de Nîmes Denim fetishists Menno van Meurs and René Strolenberg have shared their strong passion for ‘pure blue’ for more than a decade. What once started as a competition between Dutch cities: Den Haag and Amsterdam (in which they competed with each other on the best worn-in denim) resulted in a passionate partnership. At the 21th of November 2008 their view on modern and traditional denim becomes reality when they will be opening their ‘Denim Inspired Boutique’ Tenue de Nîmes in Amsterdam. René worked for 6 years for the

Dutch denim pioneer G-star, where his love for jeans became more and more intense. As a sales manager he experienced the intense growth of Holland’s most successful fashion company. During his time with G-star René got in touch with his second home: Japan. In the course of his trips to the Far East, he got blown away by the way the Japanese people experience love for denim and authentic products in general.

red closet of Mode D’emploi in Den Haag. There they got indoctrinated with the basic principles of denim fetishism. In this former closet the most special pairs where presented from for instance Denime, Lee, Wrangler and Levi’s. After 12 years of high schools, universities and jobs in marketing and concept development, this red closet turned out to be more important than they ever could have imagined.

Menno developed his love for denim together with his brother Matthijs in front of the legendary

Photography: Yamandu Roos / www.yamandu.org

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Quality is not an act. It is a habit.

— Aristotle 6

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Brands/products at Tenue de Nîmes

Photography: Momotaro Jeans

Tenue de Nîmes represents a natural blend of carefully selected items which all shall embellish life. Although the store will unite several unique items deriving from a limited edition RAW Cannondale and glasses to photography and design, the shop has denim as an initial concept. Everything between the walls of the denim inspired boutique is interconnected and has an underlying connection with the heritage of jeans. Tenue de Nîmes claims to have a pair of jeans for

anyone. In the ‘old’ part of the store Tenue de Nîmes presents the largest and most diverse range of denim in Amsterdam on a massive denim wall made out of French railroad beams. Tenue de Nîmes is proud to sell the following denim brands: Levi’s Red, Lee jeans, Denim Demon, IJIN Material, Momotaro jeans, Nudie Jeans and G-star. Besides denim Tenue de Nîmes will unite a blend of contemporary fashion for men and women in the ‘new’ part of the store. In here customers

JOURNAL DE Nîmes / Nº 0 the premier issue november 2008

will find brands like Whyszeck, Camilla Norrback, SUIT, Elvine, Cheap Monday, SundaySun, Minimum, Velour and the hand made Tenue de Nîmes private label. The Tenue de Nîmes jeans and fashion are completed with a broad range of fabulous products like shoes from Nike, Tretorn, and Gram, accessories from Sandqvist and Ellen Truijen, Swedish SAV ™wine, Thank You Too cards and must haves like special Japanese washing-powder for your most precious jeans.

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“Their craftsmanship outshines through their attention to details and their ability to monitor the entire process from the fabric to final product.”

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Tenue de Nîmes Private Label

Since 2007 Tenue de Nîmes develops a hand crafted private label in a diverse range of locations in Europe. The initial idea of the private label is that each Tenue de Nîmes garment will be built in exclusive quantities, under friendly circumstances and with the best available materials that our suppliers can get their hands on. Tenue de Nîmes devotes itself to re-building daily icons (like the male shirt) that unite quality and craftsmanship and combine style with soberness. Tenue de Nîmes strives for a classic silhouette with seasonal colour and style changes while the fit will last for ever. All the garments will be filled with hidden messages and will

only directly show the company cross. In terms of communication the brand intends to whisper its unique details so people are forced to lean forward while watching. Customers will become engaged to our privileged and valuable information presented to them in an exclusive but relevant way. The brand identity is designed by Joachim Baan and has the fundamental theme: ‘Made in Europe’. During this project Tenue de Nîmes will be in search of authentic family businesses that each have their own specialty. We will keep on searching for new skilled parties because we intend to built a complete collection

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existing from hand made ‘must haves’ in the near future. The first chapter of this project contains a small collection of male shirts that was made by a family that makes shirts for almost 40 years thanks to their devoted and well experienced personnel. Their craftsmanship outshines through their attention to details and their ability to monitor the entire process from the fabric to final product. The Tenue de Nîmes private label will be sold exclusively at the Tenue de Nîmes and will soon be available online: www.tenuedenimes.com.

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Denim godfathers. Tenue de Nîmes is proud to be the first store that sells three extraordinary denim brands on the Dutch market: Denim Demon (Sweden), IIJIN Material (Japan) and Momotaro jeans (Japan). Their presidents Oskar Olsson, Philip Goss and Katsu Manabe are denim connoisseurs with blue veins. Tenue de Nîmes asked them about their world of denim... Illustrations: Emile Pen / www.mrpen.nl

Katsuhito Manabe Momotaro jeans How did your love for denim started? We loved to pursuit a genuine jeans that was only succeeded in the United Sates untill the ‘70’s. Today this traditional fabrication remains in Japan. We intend to expand the vintage denim that consists of an ancient tradition of Japan, so it will be known all over the world in the future. When did you start your company and what were the main reasons? The jeans makers who occurred in a stream until 1975 in Japan (especially from KOJIMA and the IBARA area in OKAYAMA) were crazy about purchasing denim fabrics from the USA. At that same time, local weavers realized that Okayama had been the capital of cotton weaves since the ‘Edo Period’ in Japan. At that point of time they decided to try to create the best denim in Japan. We established the company back then so that we could hand over the genuine material and production principles (textile that focuses on blue) for future generations.

You have to undertstand that the phenomenon exists only in Okayama and is essential in making genuine products. What is in your opinion the best way to treat your denim? Basically jeans in our minds can only exist by using denim. We intend to let everybody decide for himself what is the best way to treat their denim. We would like the customers to experience our denim uniquely. This because of the reason that our denim is produced likewise: in a complete original way by careful selection of for instance the yarn and other side products that built the jeans in total. Our company is the proud of number one in the world in development of the denim material. We are confident that all our clients developed their own unique skills to take care of them. What is your most precious pair of jeans? Our company creates what we like to call ‘The original jeans’. Our Company is the only one in the world who creates this ‘Momotaro

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Gold Label’ pair of jeans and one pair takes around a year before it is ready for the market. These pairs are handwoven and handdyed in pure indigo: “SYOU-AI”. This means that we are forced to make small amounts at a time and do not use chemicals to affect the color so every pair is unique. Natural indigo dye is built out of harden indigo plants called “SUKUMO” and liquified by adding lime water. Then it’s dyed up using the artisanal sense and experience which control condition of indigo dying by adding products such as sugar and Japanese Sake to help fermentation. How do you see jeans within ten year? We intend to keep on evolving our commodity from a pure love for the fabric. We see to many people that simply copy iconic and vintage pairs without creating an unique identity or without acknowledging the fundamental principles of denim production. We are very ambitious to pursue the quality and originality that can only be created by the Japanese.

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Philip Goss IJIN Material

How did your love for denim started? “Whilst studying at St.Martins in London, in the mid 80’s, I was focussed on mens tailoring, at which time I had attained various tailoring accolades aswell as nurturing the love of generic product type and “vintages” found in military pieces. History, tradition, expertise, hand finishing and a personal interpretation of the classic are all necessary attributes of a good tailor. Conceptual jeans-making deals with exactly the same principles and skills. During this time, selvedge denim production was stopped (from the 501 camp) and immediately denim became a vintage legend. This is when denim became interesting to me, because we could see a situation being born in front of our very eyes as selvedge denim became rarer and japanese slow-denim production was beginning.” When did you start your company and what were the main reasons? “In 2003 IJIN Material was born. I was still creative director of Evisu International and was about to switch camps and design my own personal line ( 9055 evisu - philip goss edition ) directly in Osaka with Yamane San. In contrast

to this product area, I created the open leg cut “foldedge “ J5030 style to deliberatly push the creative denim boundaries. I wanted to independently finance a new left field product and purposely re-interpret traditional denim, with the clear intention of presenting the archetypal indigo item in alternative way, whilst remaining faithful to hand made assembly. IJIN was never about recreating vintage replicas, which obviously I have enough experience in.” What is in your opinion the best way to treat your denim? “Denim is a totally personal item. It warrants the attention you give it and reflects these decisions. Drag it behind your car or wear it whilst paint balling and it will respond to these conditions. Its your choice and most choices are valid. So I won’t tell you to wear it unwashed for as long as possible (365 days minimum), then soak it in luke warm water with little detergent, rub it with sea salt, add organic vinegar ( if you want the indigo blue to fix and stay dark and the white to go whiter ), than dry it on your roof in very hot sun, with no wind and never press before re wearing - or maybe i just did tell you.”

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What is your most precious pair of jeans? “This would be my IJIN J5030 foldedge classic backstrap first sample versus my handpaint Evis Daicoku bondage pants with godhead buttons (there is only 1 pair on this planet).” How do you see jeans within ten year? “Denim is both the timeless classic & the people’s product which best reflects the times we live in. Denim is always about people and social circumstance. The element of “rebellion “ and workwear has been juxtaposed for modern day comunication about the self. This started with the holister riots in the 50’s, through hippies and moved to mods and then skinheads, so-called designer denim and vintage repros. We have denim heads and skinny kids today with equal enthusiasm for the genre of denim, but portayed in totally different ways and emphases. They are at opposite poles of the denim scale but deal with the same source item : jeans. So in ten years time check out your ‘youtubes’, ‘facebooks’, ‘flickrs’, ‘beat port charts’, get dressed, go out & skype me about it because i am sure that the “people” will be deciding, not me.”

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Oskar Olsson Denim Demon

How did your love for denim started? “Denim has always been around for me from off the moment I got my first pair of 501’s at the age of 12. Up until I started working for JC (a local denim chain) at the age of 18, I wore jeans because everybody else had them. But from that point it all changed, I suddenly started to get interested in the history and stories behind it. JC was packed with likeminded people and we would all ravish each other to learn and read more about it. I bought my first pair of Levi’s “Big E” at the age of 19 and I have been hooked to denim ever since. The more you learn, the more interested and keen on more knowledge you get.” When did you start your company and what were the main reasons? “Denim Demon started as a serious business in August 2007, although the plans where made long before that. Back in 2000 me and my brother Anton worked at Solo, the best denim account in Sweden, selling a lot of Lee and Levi’s. We always had thoughts on how other brands produced denim, even though you liked it, there were

always things we thought could be better. So we thought, let’s try it and see if we are able to become better than the rest. It turned out to be a life challenge for us.” What is in your opinion the best way to treat your denim? “Do not care at all about when, how and how often you wear them. Use them at all times, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In fact, you shouldn’t take care of your jeans at all since they are made for wearing. That’s what people should bear in mind. The more your wear them, the better. And do not dare washing them too often!” What is your most precious pair of jeans? “My most precious pair of jeans? I have to say two pairs then. The first one is my first pair of Levi’s I bought. It is a 501 in the 01 quality and 01 wash (one wash). I bought them with my own money and they were extremely expensive. I was 12 years old and I bought it at a local store in Kallhäll, a small village 30 minutes from Stockholm. I loved those and wore them until they were falling into pieces. In some way my brother managed to fix them and they are

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still in the family. Actually our first pair of washed jeans, the Denim Demon Anna-Britt, are based on this particular pair of trousers. The other favourite pair is my second pair of Denim Demon Aajja Raw, the first shipment we received in our new ‘Isko 14,5 oz’ quality, they fit so good and look like amazing! I absolutely adore them!” How do you see jeans within ten year? Jeans in ten years will be like jeans today. A few brands are gone, a few brands have been added. But they’ll look the same and still feel the same. I believe the big difference will be in fabrics. Hopefully the entire denim production will be organic by then. And with denim I do not mean just the fabric, I’m hoping the entire process of denim development from gaining cotton to the final transportation of the jeans will be environment friendly. We need to look after our environment, it’s the only one we have. Hopefully people will become more interested in qualities too. And last but not least: in ten years my first pair of Denim Demon Aajja Japan will look amazing, no doubt about it.

Opening

21/11/2008

Press

Opening

Pre-sale

-----------------------Press opening 15:00hr en 18:00hr.

-----------------------L’Equipe de Nîmes Network Opening 18:00 and 21:00

-----------------------Private Pre-Sale L’Equipe de Nîmes network

Meet up with : Denim Demon founders Anton and Oskar Olsson . VOX president Finn Alpberg. Philip Goss Former Evisu head designer and IJIN Material owner. Christian Cerna of Whyszeck . Katsu Hino of Momotaro jeans.

First L’Equipe expo by Yamandu Roos with ‘Camino sucio’

Use your network to come in

On invitation only

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Programme

21/11/2008 -----------------------On Friday November the 21st Tenue de Nîmes will organise a press day between 15:00hr en 18:00hr. All our media contacts, journalists, stylists and others are more than welcome to get a glimpse on our store and get introduced with our interior and concept. Besides this preview the people will be able to meet up with some extraordinary people from the business. Denim Demon founders Anton and Oskar Olsson will be present together with VOX president Finn Alpberg. Former Evisu head designer and IJIN Material owner Philip Goss will be at the opening and Whyszeck founder Christian Cerna will join our gathering. Tenue de Nîmes has invited Japanese denim guru Katsu Hino of Momotaro jeans who will share his view on pure indigo development. At last fashion entrepreneurs from Holland and surrounding countries will complete our opening’s first round.

-----------------------We are thrilled to announce that the second part of our opening between 18:00 and 21:00 will comprise the first chapter of our L’Equipe de Nîmes network. Together with our design headman Joachim Baan we will invite our passionate equipe to our shop opening. L’Équipe de Nîmes has the ambition to be the connecting link between the interesting people that share a single but significant thing: a passion. We unite people who feel the Tenue de Nîmes enthusiasm for authenticity and pureness. Above all L’Équipe de Nîmes is pure effusiveness, no quality mark! We simply embrace who and what we like. Tenue de Nîmes is proud to announce that the first L’Equipe member to present his latest activities is Yamandu Roos. This talented young man will expose his latest work from his tour ‘Camino sucio’. Work from this extraordinary sequence will be for sale for ten weeks at the Tenue de Nîmes boutique.

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-----------------------Especially for the L’Equipe de Nîmes network Menno and René organise an exclusive pre-sale a week before the official opening. People who are interested in attending this master preview in the Tenue de Nîmes boutique must use their network in order to get their copy.

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Yamandu Roos ‘Camino sucio’ Tenue de Nîmes is proud to announce that the first L’Equipe member to present his latest activities is Yamandu Roos. This talented young man will expose his latest work from his tour ‘Camino sucio’. Work from this extraordinary sequence will be for sale for ten weeks at the Tenue de Nîmes boutique.

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We share a passion. Thank you. www.tenuedenimes.com & www.thankyoutoo.org

JOURNAL DE Nîmes / Nº 0 the premier issue november 2008