/ Fade Friday /

Fade Friday – GUSTIN Regular #7 (6.5 Years, 2 Washes)

Courtesy of reader Alexei from Serbia, these GUSTIN #7 Regulars have served as Alexei’s first and only pair of raw denim for the greater part of a decade. A testament to the journey and stories a garment can tell, these jeans have travelled from seashores to snowy mountains, told through the true blue hues seen throughout the fabric.

Alexei tells us these jeans started as simple office pants, but through natural wear and tear, they transitioned from business-casual to casual, eventually serving as Alexei’s everyday denim. Washed only twice over a six-year lifespan, these GUSTINs have been thoroughly worn, torn, and repaired, developing a rich, natural fade pattern with deep indigo highs and lows throughout.

GUSTIN’s#7 Regulars make use of selvedge denim woven by legendary US fabric manufacturer Cone Mills. The now-defunct fabric mill served as one of the last producers of selvedge raw denim in the United States; A tradition we hope to see revitalized by Mt. Vernon in the near future.

Dyed a deep indigo with grey undertones, Cone Mill’s 13.5oz fabric is a classic red line selvedge denim, woven with a crisp touch and high-density surface texture. Through years of wear, the once raw fabric has yielded to continuous wear, softening up and conforming to Alexei’s body to form shimmering honeycombs behind the knees and solid whiskering along the lap. The dye loss accentuates the palette of indigo tones, while some has bled onto the cognac leather patch, showcasing denim’s distinct stain of time.

/ New Releases /

J.WU Launches Carrier Collection Fueled by 12 oz. Mount Vernon Mills Cotton Duck

There’s something special about a co-ord, but there are lots of particularly special things about J.WU‘s Carrier Collection — a striking set made up of their Carrier jacket and Carrier pants.

Both pieces are inspired by vintage American workwear and have bags of character. The Carrier jacket sits short on the hip with a contemporary boxy fit. Up front, there are two chest pockets and two deep characterful curved patch pockets. These are mirrored on the back in the form of a roomy back pocket. J.WU has continued these curved pockets onto the Carrier pants — two front, two back, and that stalwart of workwear, a utility pocket on the thigh. Double-kneed construction and a high rise make them the perfect companion to the jacket, but there’s no arguing that both pieces can stand in their own right.

Both jacket and pants are made from a 12 oz. cotton canvas sewn at Mount Vernon Mills, which has been weaving textiles in South Carolina for over 180 years. After being cut into these wokwear-inspired silhouettes, it’s then garment-washed — once cut and sewn — to give it a comfortable, worn-in look and feel from the get-go.

But the Carrier Collection doesn’t just use an American fabric; it takes the Made in USA label seriously. All other aspects of J.WU’s Carrier Collection’s production are handled domestically. The cotton is grown in Texas before heading to SC to be woven, it then heads up to New York, where it’s cut and sewn before ending up in New Jersey for finishing. This is an approach we are seeing more of in the industry, and it’s spawning some beautiful garments – with this two-piece being an exceptional release.

Carrier jacket available for $295 and Carrier pants available for $285, both directly from J.WU.

Hiroshi KATO Drops New Batch of Anvils for FW25

Together with

Every wardrobe needs an overshirt or 3; they’re arguably the most versatile fall/winter garment. It’s the outer layer that hits cold-weather requirements whilst having the versatile, sprezzatura styling of a button-down shirt. If you’re yet to find the perfect overshirt(s), KATO has basically perfected the silhouette with The Anvil, a CPO-inspired shirt jacket designed with a three-dimensional pattern that incorporates side panels for a masterfully articulated fit.

ATO has started FW25 strong by dropping The Anvil in 3 new materials: Melton wool, Natural Slub Selvedge, and Nep Selvedge Denim. If you want something incredibly insulating and water resistant, there are 3 colorways of Melton wool to choose from — Dark Green, Black, and Camel — all of which are woven with 20% nylon to make them more durable and bring the weight down a notch. For the Natural Slub, KATO made the Anvil out of its slubby 14 oz. ecru denim and garment dyed them in Carob and Military Green. As well as being the perfect autumnal colorways, the garment-dyeing process gives the Natural Slub Anvil a relaxed, broken-in feel that works perfectly on this four-pocket shirt jacket. Last but absolutely not least, you have the 13 oz. nep selvedge, a rare Japanese-woven indigo denim that comes covered in snow-like neps way before the weather warnings start rolling in.

Each Anvil shirt jacket is made in Los Angeles and features soft lining on the cuffs and collar, catseye buttons, and dual rounded chest pockets – one of which has a handy pen slot. All that’s left for you to do is decide whether you want to melt into some Melton or dive into some highly textured selvedge. Or, both?

Available at KATO from $388.

Freenote Cloth’s High Low Leather Jacket is Smoking in Tobacco Suede

This is the kind of jacket that immediately makes you think “what a jacket”; the kind that you’ll see someone wearing and be thinking about for the rest of your day. This is Freenote Cloth‘s High Low Leather Jacket in a beautiful tobacco suede.

The High Low was one of the first pieces that Freenote ever released, but it’s clear to see why they’re still making it today. Based on an unbeatably classic trucker jacket, the High Low sits higher on the waist with a generous space in the chest providing comfort as well as cool.

Leather jackets are always nice to look at, but something about suede is just so instantly pleasing. For this latest rendition of the High Low, Freenote looked to the beautiful landscapes of Tuscany. Specifically to the Conceria Opera, a specialist suede tannery in the small town of Santa Croce sull’Arno, between Pisa and Florence. Freenote made the right decision, turning to Opera, the 1.4mm tobacco suede they’ve used for this High Low is a truly gorgeous material that will only get better with age.

The High Low also features a distinctive zigzag stitch running down the placket, paying homage to the mid-20th-century detail pioneered by Wrangler and Lee. Each piece is handmade in California, like the rest of Freenote’s garb, and comes with double-needle detailing, concho rivets from Japan, and custom snap closures.

Available from Franklin & Poe for $2,000.

Mount Vernon Mills Secures Draper X3 Looms from Vidalia Closure

When the historic Cone Mills White Oak denim plant in Greensboro closed down 8 years ago, it was a huge loss for the denim industry. After over 110 years of making denim for some of the most significant denim and workwear brands around, namely Levi Strauss & Co., the closure seemed to stamp out the last bastion of domestic selvedge denim manufacturing, which was proving unable to compete with cheaper, mass-produced denim.

After all the remaining fabric had been scooped up, people’s attention turned to the machines that were the heartbeat of the mill itself: the Draper X3 loom. Slower and narrower than their modern counterparts, it’s tough to make a practical appeal for why these machines would be worth saving, on paper. But like the perfectly seasoned, impossible-to-replicate flavor of your favorite wok or cast-iron skillet, the X3’s mechanical quirks and the character-rich, uneven fabric it birthed became the calling card of generations of celebrated denim in the US. So much so that some Japanese brands try to recreate this uneven texture in their reproduction jeans by unpicking deadstock Cone Mills fabric yarn by yarn.

The short-lived Vidalia Mills stewarded the shuttle looms for a few years in Louisiana, but hard times fell, and the fate of this machinery was again thrown in question. That is, until Mount Vernon Mills stepped in. With 6 textile manufacturing plants across the Southern US and 750 employees under its belt, Mount Vernon has been a force in American textile manufacturing since 1845. Already known as the country’s leading denim producer, working with Levi’s, Wrangler, and Carhartt, to name a few, the mill seems like the perfect fit when it comes to integrating higher-end denim production into its workstream.

And for that, we, and jean nerds everywhere, are eagerly awaiting what this will mean for domestic selvedge denim production.

/ Weekly Rundown /

• Denim Designer Janelle Hanna’s New Book Empowers DIYers – Sourcing Journal

• Guide – Types of apron front and split toe seams – Shoegazing

• Are Corporations Psychopaths? – Jeansland

• A Rare Collaboration: Crown Northampton x Heddels – Crown Northampton

• The Shoe That Fits the Foot — Not the Market – With Andrew Turriff (#157) – Well Dressed Dad

• Bath mats, candles, and underpants: would Basquiat have loved or hated all the merch? – The Guardian

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