How we make

 

 

A new film by award winning photographer Kenny McCracken, following the process and beauty of a pair of Dawson Denim British made Japanese Selvedge jeans.

 At Dawson Denim quality is paramount. We believe the devil is in the detail, which starts with the fabric. We use Japanese selvedge denim, woven and dyed in Okayama, Japan. We have personally sourced a selection of mills specifically for their rare qualities.

Japan has a long history of dyeing with indigo dating back to the Edo period where the Emperor banned the common working people from wearing any other colours than Blue, Grey or brown. It’s this history that provided a huge wealth of knowledge of indigo dyeing still in use today in Japans Okayama province. The cotton is also spun and woven in this area.

In 1926 Sakichi Toyoda invented the Toyoda loom a loom that has an automatic stop, thus producing much better quality denim with less faults. It’s these looms and the similar Imamura looms, which are still used today on our fabrics.

Of course it isn’t enough for us to just use the best fabrics we have over the past few years collected original 1950’s sewing machines like the Union Special famed for it’s ability to sew heavy weight fabrics. These machines are rare. It’s these machines that create our unique handwriting which can’t be replicated on modern sewing machines or mass manufactured goods. The finish is truly authentic. Our goods take time to produce, with a lot of care and attention. We cut all our own patterns in house by hand using original techniques. Our leather patches are cut by hand, which are also branded using a branding iron we made. Each item is numbered and we sign each piece. We pay just as much attention to the packaging as the garment itself.

 

 

 

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