Arriving in Montreal, if there was one brand that I really wanted to see up close, it was Naked & Famous. Unfortunately not widely distributed in France, it is nevertheless one of the best quality/price ratios on the denim market , halfway between APC and Renhsen. But above all, the brand has distinguished itself with its truly original creations , such as the heaviest jeans in the world (which stand up on their own), or the Raspberry Denim which smells of raspberries ...
So when I learned that Naked&Famous HQ was in Montreal, you can imagine that BonneGueule absolutely had to meet the founder. We stayed there for two hours.
My impressions ? A much more unusual brand than I thought.
Note from Geoffrey: Completely agree with Benoît. Meeting Brandon was a bit like having won the ticket to “Charly and the Chocolate Factory”: denim and more. We listened to demonic Rockabilly on an old record player (with the screams of enraged women on it), while quietly talking about denim... while drinking Japanese soda which exploded when you opened it. And we even left with candy.
Brand founder Brandon Svarc in the storage warehouse.
A little reminder about the brand...
Why do we love and recommend the Naked & Famous brand?
Because their jeans are extremely well cut , especially for small people. Brandon, the founder, is very slender, which explains the care taken in the patterning for people with a fairly thin body shape . The person making the patterns has over 30 years of experience, and Brandon was proud to point out that nothing is drawn on a computer.
For my part, I have also been wearing Naked & Famous for a few months, and it is clear that the Weird Guy cut (a semi-slim cut) is very well made. So much so that the founder of Prps (ultra high-end denim brand) even bought the entire stock of this cut at the Barney's store in New York.
The brand is as anti-bling as possible , Brandon leads a crusade against pre-worn and expensive designer jeans. When we ask him why, he answers me in the form of a question: "would you buy a luxury car with the seats already worn out?" He even swore to sell only raw denim, and nothing but raw jeans , but never faded jeans.
It's a brand that is also well priced : prices range from 125 Canadian dollars to... much more expensive for the craziest jeans. And I assure you, for 125 dollars, this is a very effective selvedge canvas jean (and better cut than an APC, I insist on that) that you can have.
But it is not with the basic raw selvedge that the brand has distinguished itself, but rather with its unique creations (I will come to that in a moment). To fully understand this, you need to know that Brandon is an ultra creative person who, when we ask him where all these ideas come from (for example: making s e lvedge with stretch for women ), he simply answers: " There's always a lot going on in my head."
He is certainly creative, but also passionate about industrial design that lasts over time. It’s this combination of “mind-blowing ideas” + “very demanding manufacturing” that makes up the unique DNA of Naked & Famous.
Okay, so what did you see at the showroom?
The worn jeans on the wall are jeans that Brandon's entourage wore. You can also see the costume on the right in... kimono cloth, extremely well cut. I was even surprised to see that its lapels strongly resembled the famous Smalto notch .
The first thing you see when entering the showroom is this impressive wall where many worn jeans are hung . Brandon naturally loves worn jeans, and he even encourages those around him to bring in their worn jeans so he can hang them on the wall, in exchange for new jeans.
And then Brandon starts by showing us his great pride: the jeans that stand up by themselves .
“The heaviest jeans in the world that stand up on their own”
When we ask him why he created such jeans (which are obviously not very comfortable to wear), Brandon explains to us that it's like climbing Everest: it's painful, it's expensive, it's not pleasant, but you have to do it as a personal challenge. These 32 oz jeans (a classic selvedge is around 15 oz), it's a bit like his own Everest.
Yes, yes, it really stands up on its own.
To give you an idea of the texture, know that the canvas has been specially developed for this model. The threads that make it up are usually used to make carpets or military tents... And indeed, on closer inspection, it is very close to the fringes that you can see on the carpet in your living room.
The famous canvas in question... Note the beautiful regularity of the weaving.
Sewing this imposing label was a real challenge. Brandon first turned to a friend who was used to making golf bags, and therefore dealing with very thick leathers. Problem: although the needle went through the leather well, it broke when it reached the jeans... So Brandon had to find a friend who had a special machine for perforating resistant materials, then he sewed the label to by hand, passing the thread through the holes in the jeans...
Then, with always the same enthusiasm, Brandon shows us his range of jeans.
First there is this most expensive pair of jeans he has ever produced: $1,500. These are 100% cashmere...selvedge jeans . It was the first time I saw such denim:
Yes, it’s definitely cashmere!
Selvedge cashmere. You don't believe it until you see it before your eyes.
And then comes the rest of the range, quite fun:
- jeans with stretch and cashmere , which gives them a very particular texture
- 22 oz jeans , which are very sturdy (to give you an idea, it's a bit the same texture that you have on the Filson bag fabrics)
- jeans dyed with a little pomegranate
- jeans to go skiing ... Yes, they did it!
And that's not all...
Raspberry Denim, which really smells like raspberries when you scratch it.
The Stainless Steel Denim, jeans made with real steel threads (a little), which perfectly takes the shape of its wearer.
One of my favorite jeans from the range: the thread is dyed red, then blue. As a result, when it wears out, instead of having a white patina appearing, the jeans fade into... red! The wear is really very pretty and unique.
Bonus: Brandon is very proud of this more than 60 year old machine that he went to recover in Japan. Brandon was adamant on this: “You can’t make vintage jeans if you don’t have this machine!”
It is used to make the hem in a very particular way, with a certain relief:
The three jeans starting from the left have this famous raised hem at the seam (sorry, it's not at all easy to take a photo of) and the jeans on the far right, of lower quality, have a normal hem , more basic. I grant you, it's really a purist detail, but it can give you an idea of the care taken in manufacturing.
The Tate + Yoko store
Brandon is a big fan of vintage industrial furniture, hence the omnipresence of factory carts. On the walls, you have huge denim canvases displayed with the brands sold on site.
In the same building, there is the store owned by Brandon, Tate + Yoko (name taken from a kind of Japanese nursery rhyme, Tate & Yoko meaning warp and weft). Once back, Brandon is, as usual, inexhaustible and tells us an impressive number of anecdotes throughout the visit:
Brandon wants something sturdy, that's why the walls of the fitting room are made of metal. He was also proud to tell us that the hook which is magnetized to the wall could support a weight of 80 kg. The romantic comic book pages displayed on the wall come from his personal collection.
All joking aside, this store is the temple of selvedge jeans, that's all there is, and super quality brands to boot:
Artisan studio, the brand without which there would be no selvedge jeans today. It was this Japanese brand that completely launched the fashion for premium Japanese jeans in the 80s.
Momotaro, Japanese brand of selvedge well known to purists.
And that's not all, the store distributes other fabulous brands:
- Flat head , the brand for ultimate vintage selvedge jean fetishists. The founder of the brand is so obsessive that he knows by heart the number of stitches on his jeans... The rivets are really made of copper, and the buttons are made of iron (and not steel). Brandon told me you couldn't find anything better in terms of quality.
- Eternal , which dries its jeans right after dyeing them, resulting in a unique texture.
- D# , a brand that produces its jeans in small quantities. The jeans are made at a Japanese train station in an effort to show tourists the talent of the region's jean makers. Tate + Yoko is the only point of sale in the world that distributes them...
- Oni , which produces a canvas with a slightly rough texture, but which smells of authenticity.
- I'm ignoring the rest...
Honestly, I was amazed, Brandon's passion is very contagious. But I wasn't prepared to see this:
Don't ask me what it is, I have no idea. This is from Brandon's sake collection. When I asked him if it was good, he simply said, "No. It tastes like vodka with poison."
Then, Brandon showed us a pair of jeans that are very close to his heart...
These are Brandon's favorite naturally faded jeans in his collection, which I understand were worn by a lumberjack. On the right, you have the same new jeans . The natural wash is beautiful, especially on the calves.
And this is how our visit to this colorful brand ended, of which I could not imagine the atypical personality of its manager.
Wait, wait, but what are Naked & Famous' plans for France?
Unfortunately, the brand was removed from Printemps Haussmann, in favor of the Seven for All Mankind brand (with whom they negotiated a sort of exclusivity)... The only points of sale are Colette and L'Eclaireur, but Brandon m assured that Tate + Yoko delivers abroad.
He insisted that he was also very open to French stores who would like to distribute it, he insisted that we spread the message. If any owners read us...
The case of the unbranded brand...
Also surprisingly, he is keen to distribute his entry-level brand of raw jeans in France: the unbranded brand , selvedge canvas for 80 dollars , unbeatable quality/price ratio.
The concept is simple: no marketing, logo, or anything else, just raw denim.
Brandon fully accepts the fact that they are made in China (unlike Naked and Famous which are made in Quebec), but this is the essential condition for offering this price. Personally, I think that if these jeans were distributed in France, it would be a hit, because according to the information he gave me, it would be possible to sell them for less than €100. Here too, he is really open to partnerships in France , all we have to do is find interested stores.
Very decent finishes for 80 dollars (and the famous vintage embossed hem)!
The canvas is high enough quality to wear very nicely (unbranded brand jeans worn intensively for 6 months in the photo).
End bonus : the photo with Geoffrey, Brandon and me (the idea of the military salute obviously comes from Brandon).
A big thank you to Brandon’s availability during these two hours. -Benedict
A big thanks for all the denim knowledge and fun you shared with us! -Geoff
- The official website: http://www.nakedandfamousdenim.com/
- The store attached to the HQ: http://tateandyoko.com/
- The unbranded brand website: http://www.theunbrandedbrand.com/
