Premium Jeans, Premium Denim, Best Jeans, Best Denim: 2010

Diesel Jeans

Diesel S.p.A. is an Italian design company. It is best known for clothing aimed at the young adult market, particularly jeans, but the brand can now be found on everything from underwear to fragrances, cars, furniture and even sex toys. The company is owned by its founder Renzo Rosso, and is based in Breganze in northern Italy.

The company was founded by Renzo Rosso and his former boss Adriano Goldschmied of the AG Jeans company, in 1978. Diesel's milestone years include 1985 (Renzo's complete acquisition of the company), 1988 the hiring straight out of fashion college of ex-head designer and Creative Director Wilbert Das, 1991 (beginning of the international marketing strategy) and 1996 (opening of Diesel's first flagship store on New York City's Lexington Avenue).
Rosso said that they learnt marketing from the US, creativity from Italy and systems from Germany.^[1]
In February 2007, the company launched a major intimates and beachwear division for men and women that is carried in the retail and department stores. Diesel Black Gold was announced in November 2007. The company has around 2,200 employees in 18 subsidiaries across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Its products are available in 5000 retail outlets, of which 300 are Diesel-branded stores. Annual sales were approximately €1.2 billion in 2005, and €1.3 billion in 2009. Revenue is largely derived from denim sales, but also extremely successful and influential ranges of accessories and children's wear - Diesel Kid.
Production of denim jeans is based mainly in Italy.
The biggest store is located in Milan, Italy.

Fifth Requisite Jeans

History

FIFTHREQUISITE was firstly born in Sydney Australia from a strong passion of denim by 2 denim lovers, who born in garment industry family and fashion design.

The founders started the idea of creating jeans they like, with their major concern being how hard it is to find the perfect brand as they all have different strengths and weaknesses e.g. a brand with a good design did not use a high quality fabric, and brand with good quality fabric was made with an old fashion design. Therefore, they wanted to make a jeans brand which included 3 characteristics of high-end jeans which are superior materials, superior design, and superior finishing.

In the initial period, Fifthrequisite jeans were produced in a limited quantity, especially for their own group in Sydney. Later on, the demand was increasing from word of mouth so the founders decided to build it as a brand and established their first online shop, www.fifthrequisite.com since 9th September 2009.

Philosophy

Jeans are what we love, born from a strong passion and thirst of denim and thread. Inspiration, faith and trust in philosophy lead us to believe everyone who has a hunger for a pair of life, style and fashion from times to time in everyday life.

Design comes from the passion of love that defines and glues all the gaps of life together. Fifthrequisite’s philosophy is to create a great pair of jeans that become a part of your life which are based on the 4 fundamentals of human life, making people stay true to the attitude of life and also, being all about their jeans.

Fifthrequisite has been born to fulfill the desire of human needs. After all, no matter what color, nationality, gender or religion, we all live to EAT, DRINK, SLEEP, and have SEX. We aim to show the power of denim which has been created with the finest quality, from thread to artisan. Our denim allows you to show your personality, and live your dreams - FIF

Superior Design

Each model of Fifthrequisite jeans have their own special characteristics which have been designed by professional designers and have been made by great denim artisans. The designs were concentrated on fashion, styles, and also human body structure. Also, their design team took considerate care on even the small details of the jeans such as the creative signatures which are hidden well on each pair of jeans. The style of the Fifthrequisite jeans is called Neo-Vintage style.

Superior Finishing

Fifthrequisite was delicately made by great denim artisans with the combination of modern and traditional garment manufactures to achieve premium quality. Their finishing was made carefully, concentrating on detail such as adding bar-tack about 27 tacks all around the jeans, using chain stitch machines to create durability in order for them to last longer, controlling the same sewing space between stitches, and cautiously quality control checking the jeans before packaging. For these reasons, the production time is much longer and the cost is over 5 times higher than the normal rate in the market.

Superior Materials

Fifthrequisite jeans uses premium denim and suitable materials from Top-rank suppliers around the world to build their jeans.

Fabric

Their first collection used premium denim from a well-known denim factory in Japan which gives great fading results when aged.

1. Midnight Selvage, 13.5oz raw Japanese red selvage, doubled twill in rich dark indigo. This had been created by American old vintage shuttle looms from WWII, which had been developed by Japanese and used to produce world original denim. This fabric is used for Romeo, a slim cut model which is quite hard to produce and this needs to spend the denim length more than twice as usual.

2. Grass Green Indigo, 10.5oz raw stretch denim made in Japan 98% cotton, 2% Elasthane to add comfort. This fabric uses for fifthrequisite's skinny fit called Giselle.

3. Vintage Japanese Linen has been used for their left pocket for their signature.

Button & Rivet

All Fifthrequisite’s buttons and rivets are made of Orichalcum metal which is used to produce ancient swords in Greek and Roman history. Orichalcum was called Gold Copper in the past and considered as second only to gold the strongest metal in the world. Their buttons and rivets are shining the first wear, and they will look more vintage after a period of time, with less brightness.

Leather Patch

The Fifthrequisite’s leather patch is in the indented circle form. It obviously looks cool from the back view which isn’t seen much in other jean brands. The patch was made from special genuine cow leather which will change its color through time and different environments. Therefore, it is called living leather.

Alumina Glove

The sanding glove is in each packaging of fifthrequiste jeans for the denim lover to create their own style. It’s made from fabric coated with corundum mineral.

Acne Jeans

Acne Jeans is a Swedish denim manufacturer and part of the Stockholm-based design firm "Ambition to Create Novel Expressions" (ACNE). Acne is a Swedish group of companies founded in 1996 in Stockholm. Acne today consists of Acne Advertising (advertising), Acne Art Department (design), Acne Digital (web), Acne Film (commercials, feature films and TV) and their own brands Acne (fashion), Acne Paper (magazine) and Acne JR (toys). [1] The denim offshoot began in 1997 when ACNE designed 100 pairs of jeans to distribute among friends, family and clients of the company. Before long a public request for these raw denim jeans with red stitching appeared and the following year (1998) Acne Jeans released its first collection. Ever since Acne Jeans has released two yearly collections every spring and autumn.
The products designed by Acne Jeans follow a very minimalistic style which also characterizes other Scandinavian fashions designers such as Filippa K. However, Acne Jeans is known to do things their own way. For example, Acne Jeans abstains from advertising in any fashion magazine, instead they have published their own fashion magazine Acne Paper twice each year since 2005.

During the first six years the collections produced by Acne Jeans were distributed to various clothing stores mainly in Scandinavia. However, In 2003 Acne Jeans opened its first own concept store in the Stockholm shopping mall PK huset. Today Acne Jeans has more than ten stores situated not only in Scandinavia but also in Australia,^[1] Austria, France, Germany, the UK and The United States.

The Flat Head

The Flat Head was established in 1996 by Masayoshi Kobayashi. Kobayashi took vintage denim from the 1920’s through to the 1960’s and deconstructed it to analyze the precise dyeing and stitching techniques. He then set out to produce classic styled clothing made in the same manner as the original garments. As part of this process, he uses only specially selected high quality material and employs highly skilled Japanese craftsmen.

The Flat Head’s selvedge denim is woven on old-style shuttle looms that can ,make only 50 meters of denim per day, however approximately 3 meters of fabric is required to make each pair of jeans, this is a labour of love. The shuttle loom process is time consuming, but the denim produced has a different “touch” and “feel” to that of denim produced on modern looms, thus giving the Flat Head denim products the aura of vintage denim.

As far as the dyeing process is concerned, only the surface of the thread is dyed with indigo, the centre of the thread staying white. The result of this “loop dyeing” is that as the jeans wear with age the denim fades in a beautiful and authentic fashion.

In addition to denim jeans, jackets and shirts, The Flat Head also produces a wide range of other authentically created garments. These include shirts, T shirts, leather goods and knitwear.

Kobayashi says that “At the time of purchase the product is only half complete, it is only fully complete once the garment has melded itself to the unique shape of the individual”

Nudie Jeans

Nudie Jeans is a Swedish premium clothing brand originating in Gothenburg and a subsidiary of Svenska Jeans AB, founded in 1999 by Maria Erixsson, a former employee and AD of Lee Europe and Swedish designer JC. As of 2003, the company had 12 employees, revenue of 93 million Swedish kronor and a net income of 13.6 million kronor. 70% of their revenue was generated outside of Sweden ^[1]. These figures are likely to have increased massively during the past 3 years as the brand has become more popular (in 2004, Nudie's net income increased by 70% ^[2]).
Nudie specialises in raw and prewashed denim jeans, but the company's collection includes many other items of casual clothing & accessories. In 2003, denim jeans comprised 70% of their total sales. The brand is, alongside Acne Jeans, WESC and J. Lindeberg, one of the most successful new Swedish clothing companies (both domestically & internationally); Nudie clothing retails in over 20 countries.

Credit: Wikipedia

KSUBI Jeans

Ksubi (formerly known as Tsubi) is an Australian fashion label, co-founded and directed by surfers Dan Single, George Gorrow, Paul Wilson and Oscar Wright.

Created in 2000, Dan Single and George Gorrow, were unsatisfied with the range of jeans on the market and couldn't find pairs that fit properly. Under the name Tsubi, they started manufacturing their jeans and denim.

Ksubi made its international debut in London in 2002, with an installation held in the depths of an abandoned tube station at Aldwych. Following this, Ksubi became a contender in the fashion league with their in-store installation at Selfridges Department store in London alongside the likes of Stella McCartney, Martin Margiela and Marc Jacobs. (Selfridges have since dropped Ksubi due to a string of late deliveries)

Ksubi has four official stores, and their garments, jeans and eyewear are sold in boutiques around the world.

The Ksubi Group quickly grew to a turnover of AUD$19.7 million in 2007, prior to suffering major operational and financial issues in 2008. They currently have 29 employees at their head office in Surry Hills.