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- Fade Friday – The Flat Head 1001 Jeans (4 years, 4 washes, 9 soaks)
Fade Friday – The Flat Head 1001 Jeans (4 years, 4 washes, 9 soaks)
/ Fade Friday /
I’m not sure if photographers have the best jeans or if it just seems that way because they take the best photos of their jeans. Either way, this pair of The Flat Head 1001s from photographer and Heddels reader Bhisma is truly something to behold.
Worn for over four years in the Indonesian heat, Bhimsa’s Flat Heads have achieved grail levels of fading: super contrasty combs, multiple home repairs, and rusty iron buttons. We’ve even got wear on the center of the yoke! In the words of Guy Fieri, “everybody’s in the pool”.
If any other photographers want to show us their faded jeans, we’re here for it.
The Flat Head 1001 is sadly discontinued, but you can shop other jeans by The Flat Head over at Redcast Heritage.
/ New Releases /
Meermin’s 140137 Belt Offers an Outstanding Price-To-Quality Ratio
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There are many recipes to cook up a quality belt, but few are as reliable as bridle leather and solid brass. These materials provide durability and age beautifully, all while performing the simple job of holding your pants up.
Whether you’re in need of a new belt or simply want to add a bridle leather piece to your collection, Meermin is offering up this simple yet formidable formula for just $75 with its range of 140137 Belts.
Bridle leather is a form of thick cowhide leather, tanned to become a strong material that can be used to make saddles, straps, and the like. Coming in 4 colorways, Meermin’s leather is vegetable-tanned in Italy, which gives it the potential to develop a rich and alluring patina with use. The same can be said for the solid brass buckle, which will also patinate as it comes into contact with oxygen and moisture, improving the texture and depth of color.
The unlined strap of the 140137 is cut at a versatile 35mm width, allowing it to be paired with pretty much any pants you throw at it. The finished belt comes in a range of sizes to get the perfect fit, so get that tape measure out and pick your color before these things sell out again.
Available at Meermin for $75.
There are many shoes out there that claim to be the world’s best sneaker. There are many factors at play here, and, of course, “best” is subjective. But Crown Northampton‘s latest, the Ernest Wholecut, might just be the world’s best sneaker.
Crown Northampton is never one to shy away from tradition. If anything, it’s the fuel that runs the business from design to manufacturing and beyond. The Ernest is an embodiment of Crown’s dedication to the craft and the history of shoemaking in their hometown — the shoemaking mecca that is Northampton.
A collaboration with their sister company E. Woodford & Sons (no prizes for guessing what the E stands for, more on that later), each pair of Ernest Sneakers takes over 40 hours to make. The upper of every pair is made with a single piece of leather (no seams), which is hand-selected and hand-cut by Crown’s most experienced machinist. What makes these even more special is Crown’s own unique twin-welt construction, developed in their factory in Northampton. One runs up the side of the upper, giving them a true cup sole, whilst the other folds downwards, welted and stitched through the sole as per tradition. Together, they provide strength, definition, making the Ernest unmistakably a pair of Crown Northampton shoes.
The leather, too, is very special. It is an oak bark-tanned English calf leather, made by the UK’s last remaining oak bark tannery, J. & F. J. Baker. They’ve been tanning leather in this traditional method for over 500 years, so they know what they’re doing and then some. The leather itself is cut from the densest section of the hide, which makes the Ernest waterproof, extremely long-lasting, and something that will only improve with age and wear.
Now back to the E. The shoe’s name, Ernest, is taken from Ernest Woodford, the son of the original family business E. Woodford & Sons, and the great-grandfather of Chris Woodford, founder of Crown Northampton. Chris naming these shows in tribute to his great-grandfather and this shoemaking dynasty is testament to just how special the Ernest really is.
This is truly a pair that only a company like Crown Northampton — with a rich heritage of shoemaking — could produce: the world’s best sneaker.
Available from Crown Northampton in 4 different colorways for $1300.
We love to wax lyrical about fabrics and how they fade here at Heddels, so it comes as no surprise that when spring summer rolls around, we start sniffing out Madras. This Ivy-ready fabric fades and softens beautifully, with the colours melting into each other, as you wash and wear it. Naturally, we’re really excited about these Archive India Madras button-downs from the shirting experts at Gitman Bros. Vintage.
Authentic Madras has been hand-loomed in Madras (now Chennai), India, since the 16th century. Gitman’s archive fabric isn’t quite that old, but they believe they procured it from the archive at their partner mill in Chennai and believe it originally dates from the 1970s. They’ve chosen two original plaids to deck their shirts out in — a blue and tan, with hints of red, green, and yellow, and a rich brown that draws in green, navy, and white to create a striking check. As with all Madras, the hand-woven, slubby texture of the cotton will let those colours bleed and fade, developing summer after summer. And this is a perfect summer shirting fabric — clocking in at an ultra-lightweight 3 oz, it’s easy and breezy for warm weather.
It’s not just the fabric that’s special here; this is a USA-made classic Gitman button-down, with all the classic notions you expect from their shirts — a button-down collar, chalk buttons, and a locker loop on the back — complementing the lush Madras fabric.
Available for $265 from Division Road.
Camp shirt season is in motion, and what better way to get into the sweltering spirit than with some borderline novelty seersucker fun from Japanese aloha-gods, Sun Surf.
Called their Cotton Seersucker Open Shirt in a ‘Trip to Hawaii’ motif, this classic silhouette is given the ‘cool’ treatment two times over. Firstly, that seersucker ain’t no coincidence. In addition to the wonderful texture, the comfort level and breathability of this thing is going to be ideal when the 70 and 80-degree days become par for the course. Then there is the 60s style all-over print done by Japanese mid-century Tiki artist Mookie Sato. Expertly capturing the aesthetic of the era, it’s like buttoning up a wearable time machine. Now, where are our Mai Tais?
Available for $185 from Hinoya.
Over the past 20 years, Yohei Goto’s brand Jelado has grown to become one of the best Americana-repro brands that Japan has to offer. The thing is, it’s never been an easy brand to get hold of in the United States… until Franklin and Poe stepped in.
The Philadelphia-based thread slingers have got their hands on some of Jelado’s Age of Longing 301XX jeans, an iconic staple of the brand’s offerings. The 301XX are a product of Goto San’s longing for and obsession with Levi’s 501XX, made specifically around 1951–52, which, in his own words, are “the best jeans”. To perfectly recreate the 501XX for the Age of Longing, Jelado was meticulous. They took some of the deadstock fabric from vintage Levi’s to Japan’s national testing institute to analyze the thickness of the thread, the length of the fiber, the quality of the cotton, and even the precise shade of indigo used to dye them. The resulting pair of jeans is a testament to Goto-san’s commitment to reproducing vintage American garments down to the absolute minute details, something he’s been fascinated with since high school.
Jelado had their 14 oz. reproduction fabric woven on vintage Toyoda shuttle looms before sewing it into a period-correct straight leg cut with a medium taper. Each pair is made in Japan and features a host of denim-geek details, including a narrow selvedge ID, red tab, hidden rivets, and chain stitch run off at the waistband.
America’s been longing for some more Jelado for a long time, and Franklin & Poe have answered our desires by finally bringing the Age of Longing 301XX, a truly amazing pair of jeans, over to the States.
Available for $295 from Franklin and Poe.
/ Weekly Rundown /
Developing Leather for Red Wing and More with SB Foot’s Lacy Schumann – Stitchdown
The Shark of the New: Jaws 50 Years On – The Quietus
Seeking South – Patagonia
HAVEN Summer 2025 Campaign – HAVEN
I’m A Journalist Who Was Shot By Police At The LA Protests – HuffPost
Hellbiking and the Human Animal: An Interview with Roman Dial – Outsiders Store
Do Trail Running Shoes Need Carbon Plates? The Experts Say… – Field Mag
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