Denimology

Rihanna for River Island collection

Today, Monday, I was invited to attend the pre-launch party at Opening Ceremony of Rihanna's new clothing line - River Island.

For the RIHtrospective, Rihanna and Opening Ceremony curated an exhibit of seven outfits to display in the Opening Ceremony New York flagship store in Soho.

I was also able to get a sneak peak at the collection and, to my great delight, there were some very cool denim pieces, very Rihanna denim pieces, if you know what I mean!
Check out these 3 key pieces and get yourself into the store ASAP, cause they ain't gonna hang there for long LOL!

My Visit With MET In Jeans And Cycle

While being here in beautiful (well not-so-beautiful right now.... it's been raining all day long) Italia, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to get to know the factories of two of my favorite Italian brands, MET and Cycle.

As they are located close to Vicenze, about an hour away from where I am staying here, it was a done deal. I had an amazing day getting to know the people that work there. I got to snap some pictures, and I had the most fun time chatting with Andrea Bertin, designer of Cycle.

By the pictures themselves you can see that this is a guy that does not take himself too seriously, but is funny and absolutely expressive in this very Italian way. BUT he takes his job as designer for Cycle absolutely seriously. He is really into developing new styles and denim trends and one of his most beloved subjects right now is motorcycle jeans. I took a couple of pictures here today, but I will be posting the whole range of his motorcycle line ASAP. These jeans are for men as well as for women. As you can see the back is totally designed to make riding on your bike a most comfortable experience. The fronts of the legs are full of conveniently located pockets for whatever you may need while riding. In my opinion of the features that make riding jeans work or not, the stitches on the knees are placed in a way so that you have enough room to bend them without feeling restricted.

All in all, I was very impressed with the efficiency of all the people working at the factory. Every single person - there are about 150 people working there - is responsible for a certain area in design and developing. Like, do you know how much time and research goes into developing just the right wash with the right accessories, meaning buttons, zippers and details....? Well, everything is thoroughly studied and supervised by Paola, head designer of Met. She has been with MET for 25 years now, and her experience is complete. I will introduce both Paola, and boss-designer and creator of MET, Gege Schiena, to you with a Q/A here to come soon.

Oh, and if you are lucky enough to live in Miami, MET has a mega store right there, at the South Beach, which is being remodeled right now and will re-open on November 6th. Yours truly has been invited to the launch party and I will be instagraming from there in real time with the latest fashions from MET! YAY!

Levi's®: Introducing The Made-To-Order Jeans Project

Last week I was invited to the Levi's^® store in the Meatpacking to preview their newest venue: You lucky dudes are going to be able to have your denim dreams come true and have your jeans made to order by the biggest denim brand in the whole wide world. Yeah, you ARE detecting a kind of envy here, because for now, this is only for you, guys. :-(

Check out what this is all about:

"The Levi's^® brand is excited to introduce the Made-to-Order Jeans Project at our Meatpacking Store in New York City, NY. A first for Levi's^®, this program offers our male customers the opportunity to build a pair of custom-made jeans from scratch. Working off of the classic 501^® fit, customers have the option to select materials, customize the fit and create signature design details. Customers can choose from six raw selvedge fabrics and washes and eight sundries options. The process to complete one pair of jeans is about two weeks and prices start from $450 and $750."

OK, before you say it, I agree. It's pricey. But... then again, how much is it worth for you to have your jeans, the ones you've always wanted but didn't know how you wanted or how to even begin looking for them? Don't eat, don't drink and don't pay your rent, but go get your dream-jeans! (Note: it's what I would do LOL)!!

Coterie - Prints, Studs And Other "Eye Catchers"!

In this season's last editorial about Coterie, I decided to pay special attention to prints and other interesting features, like coating and colorblocks, as these will play a big part in most summer 2013 collections. The one that most turned my head was that printed denim jacket above with gold studs - all those fashion elements in one jacket only LOL!!: print, cropped, and studded - well done, David Bitton.

There was a lot of leather and coated, but the most impressive leather jeans I found were the ones from Cotte d'Armes. They were about the only leather jeans not made of stretch leather or - oh no please no - thin stretchy lamb leather - why? Lamb leather jeans stretch from the moment you pull them up. OK, so you can wash them "back to their original size", but it is kinda painful. I so prefer, the REAL leather, and this is what Cotte has decided to go with. A slouchier, but still skinny motorcycle style leather jean, with a thick cord belt at the waist and enough room for us even to take a deep breath! Thank you, Clarence Ruth, Mr.Cotte d'Armes.

So, that's it for now, until January, when the whole thing starts all over again! Hope you had fun with this. :-) I sure did!

More Coterie

Today at Coterie my goal was to check out the brands that are not yet so well known. And I did well. There's a lot of beautiful denim out there - it just made my day. Let me just call your attention particularly to a brand called A.N.D., a California brand that uses only Japanese denim and never uses water. They define their washes as "wears". You will see like how a pair of jeans will look after you wear them 150 or 250 times, and their jeans are super soft. Actually, I noted that a lot of brands we always used to associate with "skinny jeans", now carry at least one 100% cotton boyfriend style, like, for example, MiH or Baldwin. I feel that we are all ready again for a change, and boyfriends, albeit still form-defining and not super baggy, are just THE change we need.

And more to come after the weekend!

J Brand RTW Launches At Saks 5th Avenue

It is a hard life to be successful, SIGH.... after spending the whole day at the Coterie tradeshow, J Brand's Jeff Rudes had to run over to Saks Fifth Avenue, and mingle with all his famous and not so famous guests for the launch of his RTW F/W 2012 line. But he is though, smiling and talking to everybody, you would never guess he'd just come back from launching this line in the UK and spending his day at Coterie.

Anyway, I am so bad in recognizing people, as I am specialized in recognizing denim (don't make fun of me, ok!), so I have no idea of who was there and who wasn't, but I am sure you can read about that in the gossip columns today!

Besides the beautifully finished - almost haute couture like - dresses, jackets and skirts, RTW carries a whole line of leather jeans in different colors. They are made of lamb leather and the best thing is that you can wash them. This has the big advantage that when they become too baggy - as is always the case with leather - you can shrink them back to their original shape. I am sure we shall be seeing lots of more J Brand's RTW around!