The Summer After Parson's.....

We all know the power of a comfortable pair of lived in, haven’t washed in 6 months, ripped bottom jeans, but over the past few seasons denim has once been taken to new boundaries. Denim has become the fabric of choice for ripping, painting, manipulating, and reviving. Recently, the Denim by Premiere Vision trade-show took place in Paris where over 60 exhibitors came together to show new techniques in weaving, laundering, and manufacturing of denim for the Fall/Winter 2011 season. The prevalence of super-tight jeans or denim leggings called Power Stretch will still be taking the pants off women of all ages. Ageless and vintage denim is still at the forefront as well as a strong focus on texture and construction. With that, we also have what has been going on in the high street. Designers and brands are using denim to bring in some bottom-line profits by giving it unique treatments, reviving passé styles, and promoting DIY sense of attitude.

One high street brand that has made one of the smartest moves of the year so far is the Stockholm based Cheap Monday. Creative Director Örjan Andersson has appointed long-time friend and one of my favorite designers Ann Sofie Back to work on building the image of the brand into something thats desirable to all the cool kids that love to look like they have been thrown into a giant fan. Back’s namesake and Cheap Monday share common ground with a no bullshit approach to fashion. The Spring/Summer 2010 Collection is a culmination of exactly that, but also a direct reverence to what was shown at the Paris trade-show in a Cheap Monday sprit of course. Here are few looks from their Spring/Summer 2010 Look Book & Runway Show

It’s definitely the premium denim brands that are creating new and innovative ways to styling denim. The Stolen Girlfriends Club is one to watch also. Their take on using denim as a thigh-high is a great way to make yourself stand out in a crowd, and also a nod to all of the thigh-high boots and hosiery we saw at the Fall/Winter RTW 2009 shows.

CHEAP MONDAY SPRING/SUMMER 2010 LOOKBOOK & RUNWAY






STOLEN GIRLFRIEND CLUB FALL/WINTER 2009


The luxury market also is pushing the limit of destroyed denim with designers like Christopher Decarnin vision of Balmain and it’s bleached and ripped looks from the Spring/Summer 2009 runway, Alexander McQueen, and even Dolce & Gabbana’s Spring/Summer 2010 menswear collection. Painted, tailor, laundered, shrunken, ripped, and layered effects on denim that makes a statement and gives an artistic yet poetic and moving point of view for denim.

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN SPRING/SUMMER 2010 MENSWEAR


DOLCE & GABANNA SPRING/WUMMER 2010 MENSWEAR


Let’s also not forget the array of stars that have adopted the new wavish look of destroyed and treated denim from Kristen Stewert to Rihanna to Pete Wenz. Celebrities are wearing the look down to the ground. With denim at the peak of it’s deconstructed, over-washed, stoned to death image of the moment, what can we foresee for the collections of the Spring/Summer 2011? A return to dark, raw, indigo dyed denim but with a twist perhaps, hopefully. Everything always evolves from it’s tormented past. With all the innovative denim around now, it’s only a matter a time before raw denim is at the top again especially with Jil Sander at the helm of Uniqlo.....