indigofan

Rakuten Ichiban

2009-07-06T08:21:00.003+10:00

Techcrunch have an article about Rakuten.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/05/japans-rakuten-can-the-biggest-e-commerce-site-you-never-heard-of-become-a-threat-for-amazon-globally/
It’s mostly e-business guff, but there is a small section which is relevant to buying goods from Japan.

... About a fourth of all items available for Japanese customers can be ordered from selected countries through a service called Rakuten International Shipping Services . Non-Japanese users can access Google-translated item pages (24 languages are currently supported), place an order, pay via credit card and then wait for direct delivery from Japan (it’s even possible for foreigners to collect Super Points ).

I’ve never ordered from Rakuten, but it looks like you can search for products from this page:
http://event.rakuten.co.jp/borderless/index_en.html
It looks easy:

http://event.rakuten.co.jp/borderless/infoservice/en/shoppingsteps/

I'll let you know if I make a purchase. Let me know if you have any success too.

Levis 4th of July Campaign

2009-07-05T15:36:00.003+10:00

http://goforth.levi.com/
Redefine the declaration of independence in your own words, in the spirit of today's America.

It's the ultimate mash-up, mixing Nationalism with a Corporate brand.
Whatever! I just like the boots in this pic.

Blue Bell

2009-06-30T08:55:00.002+10:00

Not sure what this is, but I signed up

http://eu.wrangler.com/bluebell/

Postal Bag - Satchel

2009-06-27T17:22:00.003+10:00

Bag Completed!
It's not really a postal bag. It's a raw leather satchel.
I didn't expect it to be this nice. I've surprised myself.

I hand-sewed the leather strap to the sides with three parallel lines double-stitched. Notice the roughness of the leather edges. Good belts have the leather trimmed/rounded rather than a straight cut. My cutting isn't so refined. It does mean that there is a bit of molting flakes of suede, especially the strap.

The inside isn't lined... it's a hard leather bucket. There are no seams on the back, the body is a single piece of leather.

Here you can see my amateur hand-stitching. This was my first seam, and it was before I purchased the stitching wheel.

For scale, you can see the 15" Macbook Pro fits easily. With a neoprene cover it can be thrown in with everything else.

I found an awesome brass buckle which is stitched to the lower corner of the bag. I also used copper rivets for attaching the tongue to the flap. My first time using rivets... they're awesome. I want to bedazzle everything I own with copper rivets. Hah. I actually went through three different constructions of the tongue and buckle. I almost used rivets to attach the buckle to the bag body, but when prototyping how it would actually work I realised that the rivets would make it more difficult for the tongue to go through the buckle. I've actually owned bags where this was a design fault.

I couldn't be happier with this bag! It's going to be great to see it stain and discolour with wear over time.

The only improvements I will make for the next version will be to make a more flexible strap attachment which allows articulation... and probably use a different type of belt which isn't leather.

Bag Progress

2009-06-26T08:36:00.002+10:00

I drew up plans for my version of the postal bag.

I'm aiming for a large satchel that will hold a 15" macbook.

I re-drew the designs a few times, and have now adjusted it so that the main body of the bag will be made from a single piece of leather. From what I can see, most postal bags have the sides as separate pieces, but if I make them part of the body, then there are two benefits: less seams, so the structure is stronger, and that also means less hand sewing that I have to do!

I've actually progressed much further than these pictures. It was VERY difficult to turn the bag inside out after the sides were sewn. I did stab my thumb with the awl once... that was painful, but not as horrific as you would think.

More pictures soon.

Beatniks are against all garments labeled "Sanforized" or "Sanforized-Plus"

2009-06-20T21:42:00.003+10:00

http://anambitiousprojectcollapsing.blogspot.com/2009/03/1963-sanforized-magazine-ad-beatniks.html

Eternal 811 - full length pics

2009-05-28T20:29:00.003+10:00

Someone was asking for full-length pics of the Eternal 811s. I just gave them a wash, so here are the pics.

I only washed them a couple of times for the first two years, but now the washing is quite regular. No brushing technique. The contrast is pretty high, so washing will tone it down a bit. They just go in the LG front-loader with Omo.

Handstitching Repair of Chainstitch

2009-05-25T18:17:00.000+10:00

On the UES blog they've repaired some jeans using the method used to handstitch leather.
It's a nice idea. Handstitching like this is supposedly good construction because there are two threads which alternate side-to-side.

http://ajihei01.blog91.fc2.com/blog-entry-205.html

Enishi Denim: Yoshi(?)

2009-05-24T17:56:00.006+10:00

I'd say these are the nicest jeans available in Australia. Enishi. They're available at Aika in Sydney, and Chiodo in Melbourne.

No backpocket rivets.

Very slubby. Nice texture!

Currently discounted at the Aika store.

Leather Materials

2009-05-24T17:39:00.003+10:00

Went to Leffler leather to get some things to make a postal bag.

I got a side of beef, a mallet, an awl (has an elliptical cross-section - not sure if this is better, but I thought it might be easier to pierce the leather with), some hole punches, and a buckle for the front strap.

I've done more research online and the proper postal bag construction also has rivets and articulating clips on the shoulder strap. I don't think I'll go to the trouble of re-creating the original. I'll essentially be trying to make a shoulder satchel. Perhaps if this project goes well I will go to the effort of finding all the hardware needed to make a proper US Mail Postal Bag.

The staff at Leffler talked me into getting a thicker/stiffer leather than I first selected. This is vegetable tanned, and I could imagine it being used for the soles of shoes! The theory is that you can always soften the leather up, so don't get something too soft.

Anyway, I'm quite excited to start, perhaps in a couple of weeks I'll start planning out how to cut this.

btw. tools which I haven't got but I think might be handy if I can locate them are: stitching measuring tool which marks out even stitching marks before you use the awl, and a leather clamp to hold things while you sew.

(Note: I know very little about leathercraft, so there's a good chance this project will fail)

Want...

2009-05-09T09:11:00.004+10:00

The IWC Ingeneiur REF:3233
Close to perfect mechanical wristwatch.
- in-house movement
- black pie pan dial
- dauphine hands
- Pellaton automatic winding system
- sapphire glass
- sapphire glass back (worth the compromise on the anti-magnetic case)

The only things I would change:

Make it in stainless instead of platinum, so it's more affordable (though still beyond reach);
Make more than 500 of them;

http://www.iwc.com

45rpm Sorahiko under the microscope

2009-05-01T15:29:00.001+10:00

Looking at the denim with a rather cruddy USB microscope.

Back pocket fading above hidden rivet.

Edge of backpocket.

... stay tuned for more microscopic adventures

Evisu Photo Book Tateoti

2009-04-30T19:35:00.007+10:00

The Tateoti book is more expensive than a magazine, so I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what is good about it.

It's a similar size to a regular magazine, denim covered, and the first two thirds of the book is just full of photos of worn-in denim. The image captions include the denim grade and style number.

The last third is a bit boring (for me) with more artistic fashion shots.

(Sorry, I posted the same pic twice, here is the other one I meant to post)

Amazon Japan Ships Internationally Fast

2009-04-29T22:55:00.004+10:00

I'd been meaning to actually purchase something from Amazon Japan for a while (for a long period of time they didn't ship outside of Japan). I just ordered a stack of denim magazines last week, and they arrived in five days!

I was surprised they arrived so fast. My experience with Amazon USA has always been a wait of approx. one month for the international shipping. I reviewed the international shipping costs, and Amazon Japan charges are more expensive but the cost per item is cheaper. If you are buying five or more books, then it is actually cheaper.

Anyway, I've got a pile of new magazines to look through. I'll post some quick reviews over the coming weeks.

ps. The Evisu Tateoti book is quite spectacular!

Do it with Denim: Competition

2009-04-21T08:20:00.004+10:00

If you're a budding fashion designer or furniture designer, you should enter the "Do it with denim" competition.
http://www.doitwithdenim.org.au/
This year's theme is Discoveries. The trick with the rules is that you have to make your item out of denim jeans, not denim fabric off the roll.
The prizes don't seem that exciting to me, but it's all for a good cause.
http://www.jeansforgenes.org.au/

Leather Kit: Card Pocket

2009-04-11T09:55:00.005+10:00

Did my first piece of leathercraft. Pretty simple pocket wallet. Two seams to hand sew... pre-hole-punched.

Here's the kit before I started. One piece of pre-cut and punched raw leather. Waxed linen thread. Needles.

I couldn't find info on how to tie off the threads, so I just back-sewed three steps, and then cut. It was pretty tight, so I had to use the pliers to help me get through those.

I probably didn't get the first part tight enough. If I had a soft mallet it would have helped make the crease flat prior to sewing.

Here's the finished product prior to trimming the threads.

It was fun. I'm pretty happy with it. Now I wish I got more supplies from Tokyu Hands. I really want to make a mailbag like this:

Repairs

2009-04-10T15:59:00.003+10:00

Last week I made some repairs to the Eternals. I should've taken pics before the repairs, but I'm getting lazy with this blog. Hah.

Here's the result.

The seat had a crease which was starting to wear through, so I used a swatch of denim on the inside and just sewed back and forth.

The crotch had a hole, so I did the same there. You can see the repair thread more clearly here.

And the keys were really starting to destroy, the pocket, so some denim on the inside of the pocket, and sewing through the lot.

I'd been cuffing these since new, so there were parts of the cuff that were close to wearing through... so I did some zig-zagging without re-inforcing.

I'm not an expert on denim repairs, but these are my beginners tips:
- set the stitch length to quite short
- use a specific denim repair thread like this one from Gutermann

http://www.sewingselections.com.au/catalogue/Threads/Gutermann/2.html
It's a mix of blue and white, so it blends in with faded denim.

On the inside I used a black poly thread. I probably should have used the denim thread on the inside, but it seems okay.

Off Topic: Hanshin Tigers

2009-04-06T20:09:00.005+10:00

This doesn't really relate to the theme of this blog, but it happened while I was in Japan in March.

On 10th March divers finally found the statue of the Colonel Sanders in the Dotombori Canal... it had been lost for 24 years.

When I first saw the statue on the TV I couldn't understand why people were so excited about a statue of Stalin. Then I realised it was Mr. KFC.

Many of the baseball fans in Osaka were very excited because this should mean that the Curse of the Colonel will be lifted from the popular team, the Hanshin Tigers.

I'm not really a baseball fan, but it seemed like a sign that I should start following the Hanshin Tigers, so I got a jersey.

Stefan Sagmeister Deconstructs Levis

2009-04-05T21:42:00.003+10:00

Artist Stefan Sagmeister deconstructed a pair of Levis, including separating the warp and weft.

He then pulled the components together into an artwork.

http://www.papermag.com/blogs/2009/03/stefan_sagmeister_shreds_levis.php
Stefan also has a TED talk that you can watch or download.

Nautical Sweater in Breton Stripes

2009-04-04T14:46:00.005+11:00

This is a Nautical Sweater from the Polo outlet. It's cotton x cashmere.

(Thanks to Anon for the update on the naming and the link to the Saint James originals. Nice.)

Samurai Belt L201HS

2009-04-04T10:26:00.006+11:00

I got a Samurai belt from IN in Osaka.
I took some pics here in comparison to my Sugar Cane garrison belt. The SC belt is broken-in now, much softer and darker... with stains. I should clean and oil/wax it soon, but I like the unevenness of the stains.

The samurai belt is bigger and thicker than the SC belt. A bit overwhelming, but it should start to feel better after a few months of wear.

http://www.samurai-j.com/web_catalog/2008winter/jeans/other/other.html

24oz Samurai

2009-03-31T20:14:00.002+11:00

Samurai have announced 24oz denim jeans. Heavy!
http://www.samurai-j.com/contents/jeans/s510xx24oz/index.html

Henry Wong follows the Adventures of Lynn Downey who follows the Adventures of Levi Strauss

2009-03-24T21:07:00.004+11:00

Henry Wong over at the Denim News blog will be covering Lynn Downey as she retraces the footsteps of Levi Strauss. It sounds like it might be interesting, so add his blog to your bookmarks or feedreader.
http://denimnews.blogspot.com/

Flathead 3001

2009-03-24T20:34:00.004+11:00

So, I only bought one pair of denim jeans in Japan. Flathead 3001.
I got these from Americaya in Ueno. http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/americaya/
I'm hoping they'll be a bit like the Eternal 811s.

I put my Japan photos up on Flickr. You can check them out here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/indigofan/sets/72157615620128790/detail/

Jeanswest Selvedge and Denim Love Contest

2009-03-24T20:14:00.003+11:00

Jeanswest, the Australian / New Zealand fashion label are running a line of Japanese Selvedge Denim jeans. They aren't available online, so get in-store to check them out.
http://www.jeanswest.com.au

They're also running a competition where you make a semi-abstract video about denim love, upload it to youtube, and then post the link to your video on their denim love affairs site... and you have the chance to win a trip to Paris!
http://www.jeanswest.com.au/Denim-Love-Affairs.html

Disclaimer: I worked on both of these web site projects.