Daniel corrigan simon miller how to#
Daniel corrigan simon miller full#

The number of denim washes isn’t the only way the brand is growing. I think that’s the reason it is, and always has been, a very strong business for Barneys’ men’s store.” They’re all about the simplicity and straightforwardness and staying true to their concept. The jeans are premium, but there are no bells and whistles. “The real denim dogs who still love original Levi’s and probably miss the original Helmut Lang jean collection. “The Simon Miller jean appeals to a purist,” says Tom Kalenderian, general merchandise manager of men’s at Barneys New York. “We’ve been doubling sales season on season for three seasons in a row now,” he says. But Sargent says the brand, which is carried at high-end retailers such as Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman, Ron Herman and Odin New York, has been experiencing “strong momentum.” That may sound expensive - especially in this post-denim-bubble era. Another important part of that price? The line is produced entirely in Los Angeles. That focus on washes - along with the use of only plant-based natural indigo and the nearly exclusive use of Japanese fabrics - makes for five-pocket jeans that range from $285 to $345. “We probably have another 500 in boxes from the development process that we’ll go back to and look at for future seasons.” “And those are just the washes we decided to use,” Corrigan says, pointing to a rack of jeans that flanks nearly an entire wall. The new women’s denim, which launched at Barneys New York for fall/winter, includes four fits in 11 washes. The men’s denim currently consists of narrow and slim fits available in 25 washes.

The brand has earned a reputation for detail-oriented washes. Even the company nameplate on the door outside refers to the hue, Indigoods LLC. Besides the racks of jeans lining the walls and the huge table heaped with thick sweaters and loose-weave button-front shirts, there are bolts of indigo-dyed Japanese leather, an inky-blue canvas couch and a rectangular swatch of canvas daubed with thick swirls and smudges of dark blue that hangs on one wall (one of Corrigan’s indigo-based paintings). atelier that’s not swaddled, draped or splattered in a shade of blue. But there’s hardly a surface in the label’s downtown L.A. That might sound like branding hyperbole. I turned a second bedroom in our house into a dye room, and I even started painting with it.”

Daniel corrigan simon miller how to#

I learned the history of it, how to dye with it.

“But, when I started working with denim, I became obsessed - obsessed - with indigo. “To be completely honest, I didn’t come into fashion knowing about indigo,” Corrigan says.

Daniel corrigan simon miller full#

They’ve grown what was a single fit of men’s denim in nine washes into a burgeoning empire that includes full men’s and women’s ready-to-wear collections, accessories and even furniture. For Corrigan, it was an infatuation with indigo for Sargent, a fascination with the power of branding. And they jumped in armed with little more than a pair of obsessions. The pair have no formal fashion training: Corrigan, 29, studied graphic design and typography Sargent, 27, studied business marketing. “We felt that put us into a box that wasn’t really how we wanted to grow things.” the pace of life, the midcentury architecture and vast landscapes - but we really felt like it was important not to be a casualwear brand and not be a solely L.A.-based denim brand,” says Sargent. “The brand is ultimately rooted in the mood of the western U.S. That’s why Daniel Corrigan and Jake Sargent, co-creative directors of Simon Miller, were determined from the outset to make sure their business had a bicoastal base, with a denim design studio in Los Angeles helmed by Corrigan and a sales office / showroom in New York City anchored by Sargent. rags-to-riches story arc is often as elusive as succeeding in Hollywood. But for a denim brand trying to transition from its five-pocket roots into a full ready-to-wear collection taken seriously by the fashion world, the L.A. Los Angeles’ most important contribution to the modern wardrobe has been elevating the blue jean - the hard-wearing trouser of miners and cowboys - to luxury status, making denim a covetable commodity so meticulously and reverentially cut, sewn and hand-dyed that a single pair can easily cost a week’s take-home pay.