Tenue de Nîmes

We have been traveling many miles over the last couple of weeks. We met with great brands, many lovely people and saw the best cities of Europe in very little time. Last week we met with our friend Katsu at the Capsule show to have a look at his new Momotaro denims for the winter season of 2012.

He showed us an incredible follow-up of the iconic Momotaro E007-2b jeans. Momotaro made a double indigo blue 0702 jean that is even darker than the E007-2b they released last year. On top of that Katsu showed us the smallest selvage denim ever made. This pair (appr. 15 cm's high) was presented next to one of the most incredible denim wear outs we have see for a long time. Katsu's 'Go to War' jeans were not for sale unfortunately. But they were most defenitly something we did not want to keep away from you guys. More soon.

Dutch blogger Dennis Swiatkowski made a Tenue de Nîmes video a couple of months ago. As you can see by looking at our haircuts it took him some time before it was finished. But we are very proud to be featured at Dennis' blog Get your pLane right on Time which may be considered to be one of the most oustanding fashion blogs of the Netherlands.

We hope you will like the short film about our denim store and our beloved city of Amsterdam. Enjoy the show.

One of the best reasons to visit the great city of Paris is spending an afternoon in the Acne showroom in Le Marais. Down at Rue Ste Croix de la Bretonnerie in the French capital everything is just always right. The products, the people, the ambiance and the presentation at the Acne headquarters are a true source of inspiration to us. This week we bought the men's main collection and the women's pre-collection. The ladies can prepare for some next level icons like a stunning lemmy and a light blue leather range. The gents will enjoy a new semi-relaxed denim style next season the Bob. This new jean will replace their success style 'Mod'.

In general the collections showed a lot of positivity and literally dozens of hearts. We believe Acne looks at the future with in love and confidence. And we are happy we are joining them. Enjoy the preview.

Nothing beats a long car ride on a Sunday morning to one of the most extraordinary showrooms in Europe: Ralph Lauren in Paris. We started the day at ten in the morning in the world of American ranches, ski villages and winter polo. The collection was overwhelming as always. We were happy to see Ralph put some of his classic Navajo styles to the collection. Have a look at for instance the Navajo cap on the images and prepare for over shirts and other accessories in the classic Indian patterns.

We will update you tomorrow on our Acne adventures in their Paris studio. Prepare for great leather, kick ass denim and lots of hearts.

We added another exciting chapter to our denim journey this week. At Pitti Uomo we met up with Japanese denim brand Pure Blue Japan. They introduced us to their latest developments in premium denim fabrication and showed us some of their classic, rough fabrics. One of the most remarkable things the brand showed us was their denim line with a non-indigo weft. Pure Blue Japan made new rigid denims with an indigo warp and purple (shown here), blue or brown weft.

We at Tenue de Nîmes are proud to announce we bought the following jeans for next season: A1-001 Slim Straight in a 17oz, hand-woven natural indigo, the characteristic XX-012 Slim Tapered 14oz Indigo Warp x Indigo Weft jeans and last we added the XX-017 14oz Indigo Warp x Blue Weft denim.

It is superfluous to state here we are very excited to be able to add these great new styles to our denim wall soon.

When we entered the booth of Nigel Cabourn we expected to be in trouble. As always Nigel had putt together a collection that would give us a terrible job to choose from. Everything between the walls of his stand was outstanding. He added new color ways to his classics like the Malory Jacket and the Everest Parka (don't miss the navy blue version) and created new styles in my favorite oxford shirts. And if all that was not enough the Eddie Bauer x Nigel Cabourn went totally out of hand. Instead of 5 styles the new collaborative collection consists of nearly 50 styles. In terms of items It basically equaled the Nigel Cabourn inline collection. Crazy. Next level really.

The collection consists of Eddie Bauer archive pieces of the 20th century. We were happy we booked a private meeting with Nigel and Drew in New Castle the end of the month. It gives us time to have a close look at all the iconic items and to create some extra space in our Amsterdam store. More soon.

Red Wing Shoes Amsterdam just released the exciting news that Red Wing will launch their latest collaboration with Nigel Cabourn in Autumn Winter 2012. We had the pleasure to get the first glimpse of the boots at the Pitti trade show in Firenze. The 'Munson' boot is based on an old combat boot that was used in World War I and II. The shoe is a solid, oiled rough monster that will become available in Chocolate Muleskinner 4618 (Shown here) and a lighter Hawthorne Muleskinner 4619.

Have a look at the total press release of the Red Wing Shoes x Nigel Cabourn boots at Red Wing Amsterdam.

Our second day at Europe's most stylish fashion trade show Pitti was full of great new products. We started the day at Woolrich who showed their winter collection in an impressive showroom separate from the other labels. Amongst many other lovely apparel the brand showed their new Woolen Mills collection by designer Mark McNairy. The women's side of the stand was decorated with stuffed animals which created a crazy outdoor experience. Another brand that really showed us next season will rock hard is Made & Crafted by the good folks at Levi's XX. Their colorful collection, in which American country life meets contemporary denim, was really something different for both man and women. The day ended with some outstanding new bags and leather accessories by our Dutch friend John van Dorst.

More posts about Nigel Cabourn and his Eddie Bauer collection and the real denim heaven at Pure Blue Japan later this weekend. Stay tuned.

Our first day in Firenze was full op Italian winter sun, the greatest dressed men and women in Europe and of course fantastic denim and fashion brands. Yesterday met up with the people at Woolrich, saw some incredible English footwear at Grenson and fell in love with the Japanese interpretation of the Filson brand. An unexpected surprise was the stand of the French cosmetics brand Mad et Len. Their fresh Patchouli was exactly what we needed after a long day on the good old Pitti trade show. More soon!

Red Wing Amsterdam will host a special exposition next month by the name of 'Memoirs – good old boots'. The exhibition shows the story of fifteen pairs of worn out Red Wing boots and the life of their owners. Amongst many others the visitors will get to know all about the Red Wing boots of a Norwegian fisherman, two bikers from the United States and a rock band from Sweden. Each Red Wing pair shows a 'history' and a unique insight into the lives of the owners.

Red Wing Shoes Amsterdam will proudly launch the Dutch chapter of this exhibition on the 2nd of February. More soon.

The good folks at Contemporary Standard published an in depth interview with Tellason Co-Founder Pete Searson yesterday. The guys provide a nice insight into the core values of the brand, their latest collaborations with A Continuous Lean and yours truly and Pete talks about the real value of rigid, American denim.

We will soon release our first 'A Few Minutes of Denim' video in which we add some new Tellason denim facts too. Enjoy the interview here.

Have a look at this product in our Webshop

Joachim sent me this image today through his Tumblr site. I could not helpt to think this must have been a vision of my unborn son.

Tough little man.

Canadian tuxedo.

Red Wing boots.

Confidently overlooking his playground.

I am in love.

-  Orginal image by Nonchalant.

For 35 years, Edwin Japan have worked on improving efficiency, quality, construction and washing methods by studying and engineering machinery used in the denim manufacturing process. The Edwin jeans crafstmen are ‘engineers’. Each person, over the course of a long period is encouraged to be responsible for maintaining and improving their machines. This means that each machine is self-customized beyond standard industrial purposes, to create unique and specialized ways of making denim. Even within the well-known denim brands factories around the world, you will not see the level of customised machinery and attention to product that one can see at the Edwin factories in Japan. It is for this reason, many ‘core heritage’ Japanese denim brands wish to have their products made within the Edwin Japan factories. This is the unique strength of the Edwin Jeans brand, the product itself.

Enjoy the video on the core of denim manufacturing at Edwin Japan.

Our friend Jonathan shared a crazy new year's toast with us by Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) that, let's say mostly, covers all that crossed our minds at new year's eve.

New posts soon!