Do you think there’s a future for Domestically produced and manufactured selvedge denim?

Kiya: There will always be a need for domestically produced selvedge denim, and Cone does a great job with it. The issue I see is that there are a load of lines selling jeans and buying their denim from Cone then having the jeans cut and sewn in the same factories in LA or NY. What really are you buying at this point? A leather tag and a marketing plan. This bores me; it’s not interesting; it’s like buying private label jeans. Anybody can do it with a few phone calls. The jeans all age the same because they’re using the same denim types in slightly varying weights. They fall apart in a similar manner (not to say they fall apart early) because they’re made in the same factories. In comparison, companies in Japan are extremely competitive against each other in general, and this carries over to the denim companies as well.

So do Japanese companies not use the same factories to manufacture their denim?

Kiya: At their spring or fall expos in Tokyo they put up worn in jeans with signs next to the jeans bragging about how many denim contests they’ve won in Lightning or Free & Easy magazine. There are far more factories in Japan making selvedge denim than anywhere in the Americas or Europe. And not to mention, when the Japanese companies make a jean they have the denim produced for them, whereas in America brands go to a rep and pick from a swatch book. This is not the case, of course, with a few of the very large companies in America such as Ralph Lauren or Levi’s.

Is CONE the only company who carries out production of selvedge denim in the US?

Kiya: Yes.

Do you see others beginning to try to do it in the future?

Kiya:: No, I don’t. Not with the way the market has been moving and the economy being in the situation that it’s in. Producing selvedge denim is very expensive, as the machines are slow and cost a good amount of money to run. So the fabric turnover has to be at a good rate or else the mill will lose money.

Where would you like to see SE in 10 years?

Kiya: I’d like to see us carrying a wider range of styles all from the same era, all produced by the Japanese.  We’re going to venture off into a few new styles starting at the end of 2010 and continue that into 2011 at all three stores. I think the 1940′s and 1950′s had more to offer than what’s currently carried by Self Edge. We’ve also seen bigger and more well-known brands start doing exactly what we started doing five years ago. This takes away a bit of the mystique for the American buyer because Americans are so concerned with the cost of something, whereas in Japan a customer would never considering buying a J.Crew US Navy Chambray shirt over the Buzz Rickson version. We need to adapt to that and change with our customers.