Comparing three brands' design philosophiesfrom @frontoffice.co

Transcript

Right. I'll tell you a story. So three designers take on the same garment with wildly different results. Tier garment in question is denim jeans. And the idea that they all try no work with, play with is this idea of authenticity. So firstly, we have Levi's. And Levi's has the classic five zero one jeans. If you close your eyes and think about denim jeans, that's probably the jeans that you're thinking about. So Levi's originally filed a patent for this type of pants going back to 1873. And you can walk into a store and get a pair of five zero one's today. But interestingly what they call the five zero one, although the name hasn't changed, the actual fabric and the fit has changed gradually over time. You can buy a modern original fit five zero one today, but there's also a ninety's fit, an eighty's fit, a fifty's fit. And if you go thrifting and you find all these jeans and you line them all up, you'll find subtle changes in rise, in thigh, in length. So how this relates to authenticity is that although it's the same company that patented these jeans in 1873, the original cut is certainly optimized for the modern customer. For the contrast, we have brand number two, Momotaro jeans from Okayama in Japan. They deal with authenticity in a very hands on tactile way. Although these jeans are made in Japan, which certainly where jeans weren't originated, there is a hyper focus on authenticity, heritage, craftsmanship. It's because the fabric of these jeans are woven on vintage shuttle looms. So originally these shuttle looms were either built or acquired very cheaply in the nineteen tier, when the rest of the worse, when The US bad moved on to very modern machines for mass production. So the looms that are in use today have been rebuilt, modified, repaired countless times over over the last eighty years. And of course these old machines have so many disadvantages. The narrow width of the fabric, the fact that the machines are so fragile, the fact that the machines are so slow. But buying something from rank 80 year old machine does connect you to a lineage of manufacturing. And when you buy from a company like that, it's probably best paired with raw denim, which starts off very stiff, very dark, a little bit difficult to wear, but does soften over time and the color takes on the shape of your body with a patina. And then you get to connect your personal history with the history of manufacturing. And finally rank number three is Acne Studios, where it's the most playful take on authenticity. So take a look at these jeans. You see these chains, these carabiners, these marks of street style. But on close inspection, the standout feature here is a photorealistic print. So these chains don't exactly worst, but it's an illusion. And this is what they call, I'm gonna butcher this, a trompe lait design, which is a two dimensional print that suggests a three-dimensional object. Now I think it's a very interesting statement. They could have printed that on anything, but they chose to print that on jeans because it contrast cutting edge technology against a canvas of heritage, against something that has existed for one hundred rank fifty years to make a comment on what is authentic. But in practice clothes are just closed, right? Like these questions of, you know, what is the best pair of jeans for summer? What are the best jeans for 2024? Rank give way to more interesting questions. Like what is my idea of heritage? What is my idea of authenticity? Is it a new design from the original maker? Is it a faithful reproduction with the original machine? Or is it a clever challenge to what authenticity is? So when you put this stuff on you are telling people, you're telling yourself what you like.