A Tour Through Browdertown - Interview with Amanda Browder

On a beautiful day in August I got to spend almost an entire day asking Brooklyn based artist Amanda Browder, who does gigantic fabric installations, all the questions! We talked about art, the connection between fashion and climate change, fabric, sewing and feminism. Here’s a segment of our conversation where Amanda talks a little bit about how she got started and the wonderful connection between her work and the communities they are installed in!

Merica Lee: Helloooooo! For my blog readers, will you describe what you do?

Amanda Browder: Ooh yes. My name's Amanda Browder, I call myself a large scale fabric installation artist. What I do is work with communities to essentially come together to make large-scale fabric installation. The first step is to ask for fabric donations from people in the city. Second step, we sew them together during these public sewing days where everyone's welcome to come, tell stories, hang out, participate. And then the final part is the installation of the large scale fabric piece on the outsides of buildings in the same town where all the fabric came from. Each work that I've made in the past is site-specific to that town, that time and the people that lived there, which is really cool.

Amanda Browder Happy Coincidences (2022) Brugge, Belgium + Triennale Brugge : photo by Jasper van het Groenewoud

Merica Lee: How long does it take for projects, start to finish?

Amanda Browder: It depends on the size of the piece. The first piece that I did was where I live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn when I first moved here in 2010. It took a year to actually make it.

Merica Lee: Oh shit.

Amanda Browder: It was up for only three days, just FYI. These are temporary public art sculptures.

Merica Lee: Tell me about your first large scale fabric piece you ever did.

Amanda Browder: So, my first piece was originally in Chicago, Illinois, where I was living. I was just out of grad school. I was teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago in the fibers department. I felt really good as an artist and I was making all these soft sculptures, usually out of fabric. I've been working in fabric my whole life. At that time, painting was just like God, and I was seen as like an Etsy craft artist, as a female artist who was sewing. So I was put in that camp immediately even though I had gotten my MFA, I was teaching doing everything that artists do. I was showing at White Columns, like I had shows, and somehow still, people were not really seeing me as the sculptor or installation artist. They were calling me out as … "Oh, you make quilts, oh you make blankets or, oh, can you sell me that pillow?" I'm like, "That's a sculpture, not a pillow!"

That frustration led me to sewing all the fabric I collected over five years in my apartment and calling my friends and saying, "Hey, I'm doing this large scale fabric installation, come to my apartment." I draped it outside my window, and it was three stories tall, and it's this huge piece called Rapunzel.

Amanda Browder Rapunzel (2006) Chicago, IL

Amanda Browder: The idea was to kind of shift people's understanding of the landscape, the urban landscape in the neighborhood. So many times when you go to see art with a capital A, you go to museums or galleries, it's kind of sequestered to that location.

Now, obviously public art is something we see in the outdoors. But at that time, really plop art was the majority of what we saw as public art, big metal sculptures.

What if I make these works so big, that I change the environment, will you finally see it as Installation or call it public art? So I started using buildings and outdoor space as a way to take people out of that feeling that art needed to be sequestered to a museum or gallery, and rather it was for everybody.

Merica Lee: Amazing! Tell me about the piece you did right here in Brooklyn.

Amanda Browder: Ok so the first piece I did when I arrived in Greenpoint in 2010 was called Future Phenomenon on Eagle and Manhattan. I wanted to introduce myself to the neighborhood in a way that was attempting to subvert the gentrification system of artists moving to a neighborhood and being judged as the developers who changed the neighborhood. So when I moved here, I was thinking, how can I do a project that introduces my practice? At the same time get to know the city council people, the neighbors, everybody in my neighborhood, and they'll know it's a celebration, not a taking over.

Back then it was before smartphones. I would go to art openings, I moved to New York cold, with really few friends, no connections and so this was another way for me to get to know people. And I just started handing out postcards, being like, "Oh, I'm going to do this piece." No funding. No support. No idea how I was going to do it.

Merica Lee: Oh, that's so punk rock.

Amanda Browder: Hahahhahahah thanks :) Maybe a DIY hustle

Amanda Browder Future Phenomena (2010) Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY + North Brooklyn Public Art Coalition

Amanda Browder: Anyway, it took about three years of just handing stuff out and getting to know people. And then this group called the North Brooklyn Public Art Coalition were interested in sponsoring my project. , which was awesome. We got a Brooklyn Arts Council grant. We got written up in the Daily News. They were really supportive as a group.

Amanda Browder: To start we had, I think, four different public sewing days around the Greenpoint, Bushwick, Williamsburg area in the convent at Saint Cecilia’s. During these public sewing days we were able to get donations of fabric from people in the neighborhood. I got to know people, we could chat over fabric, and get excited over sewing.

Amanda Browder: It was a great introduction to getting to know my neighborhood. I've lived here about 15 years and yeah, I still see some of those people on the street!

Merica Lee: So so cool that you are working and sewing with the communities where the pieces will be shown. And also the added layer of the donated fabrics!

Amanda Browder: There are so many stories that go with the fabric donations too. It is an opportunity for people to either get rid of stuff that has been sitting for a while, or to release some important fabric that has meaning but is too difficult to donate or cut up. I like to provide a space for people to donate fabric in homage to a story or loved one.

I appreciate that, I honor all that fabric that comes in. I document as many stories as I can when they come in that information, all conceptually gets embedded into the work. I've tried over the years to archive all the stories, it's sometimes very difficult. I create sewing books with names, drawings and stories that attempt to document the daily moments of the Public Sewing Days and the stories behind the fabric donations.

Amanda Browder: You know, people love to tell stories when you're sitting over a table working together, and so the Public Sewing Days Are amazing, because people come and share while we are pinning together. Very similar to a sewing circle it brings strangers to a common space to get to know each other.

And then friendships happen, like long standing friendships. I did a great project in Birmingham, Alabama “Magic Chromacity” . I am still chatting with the people in Birmingham, and that was 2014. I miss working with those amazing volunteers! We bonded and created new friendships over the sewing table.

Amanda Browder: And so yeah, the Birmingham project was definitely one of the first times where I was connecting with the quilting community, with a capital Q. It was Bib and Tucker Sewing co-op, they're an amazing group that teaches people in the community how to sew. They've been making quilts forever. It's just such an awesome group. But it's harnessing that history from that area and supporting women... I mean, men sew don't get me wrong. We hear the word tailor and we think men.

Amanda Browder Magic Chromacity (2014) Birmingham, AL + AIEIVA and Alys Stephens Center - photo by Jared Ragland

Merica Lee: Yeah, interesting.

Amanda Browder: And we say sewist, or well sewist is now the non-gendered word, which is great. Sewist.

Merica Lee: Sewist. I've never heard that before.

Amanda Browder: Me neither. And I'm super excited. I'm using it all the time now.

Merica Lee: Yeah. I'm going to start using it too.

Merica Lee: And what is the size yardage wise, roughly, of the pieces?

Amanda Browder: We're construction, so it's more feet.

Merica Lee: Okay. Well that works too, yeah.

Amanda Browder: The first piece that really put me on the map was with the Albright Knox museum up in Buffalo. We covered three buildings. One building was 250 feet by 35 feet. Then the second one was the church and that was about 70 to 80 feet tall and about 150 feet wide. And then the third one was the smallest building and I'm guessing like 60 feet by 30 feet.

Amanda Browder Spectral Locus (2018) Buffalo, NY + Albright Knox Museum + AK Public Art

Amanda Browder: The one in Grand Rapids was the largest piece I've ever done, and that was six buildings. We did four sky bridges, a huge building and another smaller building. But the huge building, when we stretched it out, was too big to lay out flat in three basketball courts. We had to do it in three sections. It was 150 by 150 square feet.

Amanda Browder Kaleidoscopic (2019) Grand Rapids, MI + Art Prize: Project 1

Merica Lee: Yeah. That's a lot of fabric.

Amanda Browder: It's a lot of fabric. So it would be like sewing a 100 000 square feet of fabric.

Merica Lee: Wow.

Amanda Browder: And it's all zigzag stitch with a regular machine. There's nothing fancy.

Merica Lee: Oh my God. It's all so cool.

Interview with Customland

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Giavanna, or to their friends and loved ones, Geeg. Geeg came over to try on the TINA COMBOS and we had a blast. I found out that they had worked at Levis doing alterations, but also they do custom embroidery work (@notforreproduction) BUT ALSO they have a shop in LA with their best friend Halsey (@gimme_greens), called Customland! I love the idea for their shop. A spot to shop and get custom embroidery and airbrush work done, but also host a workshop or a clothing swap! Retail shops can be so boring but Customland is anything but…..I couldn’t wait to find out more!

Could you two introduce yourselves?

Customland was started and founded in LA by two best friends as a no rules custom garment shop specializing in airbrush and embroidery. We were both artists originally creating our own works for several years, but we decided to combine our skills in the fall of 2021 to create CUStomLAannnnnd!

Halsey is originally from St. Pete, Florida, and first started making art when she was 18. Her journey began with graffiti as a writer and then evolved into painting on clothes when she started Gimme Greens 4 years ago. She draws inspiration from everyday things like street signs, grocery bags, and smiley faces. Breathing nostalgia into everything she makes and never afraid to mess up, because “mistakes cost extra”. She’s also a musician and has a band with her husband Matt called Blestian. She creates all the artwork and merch for the band using diy techniques she’s learned over time like handmade sticker packs and screen-printed tees.

Geeg is originally from Cumming, GA, and has always been obsessed with clothes and fashion. They followed this passion by receiving a BFA in Textiles from Georgia State University. While in school, they studied abroad at the Royal School of Needlework in Hampton Court Palace, and fell in love with embroidery. After graduation, they got a job at a small batch factory designing sports apparel. While Geeg learned a lot at the factory, they were ready for something new. They then got the opportunity to work for Levi’s as a Tailor in Los Angeles and worked there until the pandemic. During quarantine, they started Not For Reproduction to create one-of-a-kind embroidered and custom pieces.

How did you two meet and what led you to open the shop?

Geeg and Halsey met through instagram in the middle of 2020. It all started when their mutual friend Zig Zag Goods posted about Gimme Greens. Geeg commented on one of Halsey’s posts about maybe making some work together, so Halsey sent Geeg some shirts she had drawn on for Geeg to embroider. The shirts became this fun back and forth collaboration and the first time they combined their skills. The pair finally met in person the summer of 2021 when the shirts were completed and they photographed them at Geeg’s studio. They instantly became friends after discovering their shared love of the reality show Survivor and immediately started looking for a studio together. Customland happened by chance. They found a studio and it just happened to also have a storefront, and so Customland was born!!

I really love that you all are reimagining what it is to be a retail store. Your focus seems to be showcasing the work of your friends and community, but also hosting events where folks can not only shop but are invited to learn and be a part of activities and workshops. How do you all define what you're doing?

Aww! Thank you! Our goal with Customland is to keep it fun and inclusive. We both wanted a safe space to create and opened our doors to others because we realized the power of a physical space for artists to display and sell their work. We’re also passionate about sharing our own knowledge to empower others to make and create. Community is key and we know we wouldn’t be where we are today without the support of our own communities. We’ve had a few events including vendor markets with music, clothing swaps, a beading workshop, and most recently an album release/ karaoke party! Definitely looking forward to hosting more workshops, clothing swaps, and other fun creative parties we haven’t even thought of yet!!! You never know what shenanigans we may get into over here!

Are there shops that you look to for inspiration?

Wow, there are so many. It’s hard to choose! We’re mainly so inspired by our friends and the other creators we carry in the shop. Zig Zag Goods, Need Things recycle, Owlephant, Poor Baby Fashion, Sweetbead, Honeymoon Supply, Ster_projects, Good Sport!! Seriously so many!!

But also → Big Bud Press, Fashion Brand Company, Mokuyobi, Espo’s Art World, Rat Star, Laser Kitten,

Can you describe a fantasy event at the shop?

Haha well!!! It is our dream to host a full moon gathering/ build-a-bear-workshop type deal where everyone makes their own freaky stuffed animal friend out of 1/1 original plushies we made at the shop and then you know.. Make a wish on the heart and sew it in… would be so cute!! And total magical dream event <3

What’s your vision for the future of the shop?

Our vision for the future of the shop is for people to think of Customland first for all their custom embroidery and airbrush needs, or to shop pieces they know are one of a kind and could only get here! We would love to have friends constantly visiting like you never know who may stop by! And to see some other Customlands sprinkled around the world and run by other local artists doing some type of customization. Sort of like an artist residency of revolving artists offering different techniques for customization at each Customland location. These are big goals of course, but those are our ultimate dreams for our little shop :)

Compost Your Feelings (And Maybe Your Clothes) With Desi Tuttle

I’ve been thinking so much about over consumption and what happens to our clothes when we're done with them, hint: a lot of our old clothes end up in landfills all over the world. Recently there was an article circulating around the internet about composting our clothes or rather how we can compost our clothes at home. What? This didn’t sound right to me. Do I even know what composting is? I mean, you can’t even throw meat in the community compost collection sites, how can I compost this polyester shirt that permanently smells like BO, “at home”? Composting our clothes at home sounds like it could be an answer to our problem….couldn’t it?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I don’t really know what composting is. I decided I needed to ask a true badass, a lover of life in all forms and a true compost queen - Desiree Tuttle. I got to meet Desi when she was the chef at Achilles Heel. Honestly Desi’s food is so delicious and you can actually feel her love in every bite. These days, you have probably seen her at the Union Square Farmer’s Market (wo)manning the compost tent <3 She let me be annoying and ask her some questions about herself, composting in general, like what is it exactly? And what’s the deal with composting clothes?

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up? How’d you end up in NYC? Chef life? Etc!

I grew up in sunny San Diego and spent summers visiting my family’s farm in North Berwick, Maine. I loved baking and cooking as a kid; by 9 I was watching as much Food Network as I could at the sitter’s or friend’s houses (we didn't have cable). I entered a culinary school scholarship competition and, as a shock to me, I won! I moved to San Francisco and went to baking and patisserie school at the California Culinary Academy and immediately started working in restaurants. After a few years of working in SF, I got a call from a former culinary instructor and good friend, Erin Kanagy-Loux, asking if I wanted to move to Brooklyn to be her sous chef at the soon-to-be-open Reynard in the Wythe Hotel. I eventually switched to the savory side and worked my way up through a few different NYC restaurants to become the chef at Achilles Heel. I left in November of 2020.

How did you get into composting?

Food waste has always been on my radar as a chef. Margins are pretty tight when it comes to looking at a restaurant’s P&L spreadsheet; the less food you waste, the better your food costs are, the more money you have to offer people raises or hire new staff. So, you’re always trying to have as little that goes to the compost as possible. I’ve worked in places that do separate and a lot of places that don’t. When the pandemic hit and lots of businesses were starting to shut down, I learned that our organics were being thrown into the normal waste stream and was gutted. We put all of this effort in to do our part and the program had been cut. My solution? I started wheeling our food scraps to the local weekend farmer’s market. Which was not sustainable. It got me thinking, “why is this so hard? It can’t be this hard.” In November 2020, I left Achilles with the intention to take a break from cooking; with more free time on my hands, I became a member of my community garden in Flatbush and it was there that I was made aware of Dr. Elaine Ingham’s Soil Food Web School. An online class that dives deep into making “biocomplete” compost and teaching regenerative practices. My Sagittarius moon and Scorpio sun needed to know everything about compost, so I enrolled. I would say, leaving restaurants and really learning to understand soil, that it is a living thing, has been the shift from a practical task that I was doing throughout my prepping for service to something that is so deeply connected to everything we do. I wouldn't have the food I was cooking if it were not for the soil. Mother nature is a poet, she has written into the story that nothing gets wasted, everything is valuable, everything transforms and takes new life. I think compost has opened my eyes to the possibilities of starting anew, to looking at myself and the world differently. I could go on and on about composting your feelings….

Can you tell us a little bit about composting? Like, what is it exactly? 

Let’s go over some terms: 

1. Parent material is sand, silt, clay, rocks pebbles…mainly minerals

2. Compost is the nutrient-dense, dark chocolate colored product that you get after billions of microbes have eaten and broken down organic matter. This is a natural fertilizer that (hopefully) has some good biology in it that, once added back to your soil, will help keep soil aerated, able to hold moisture, grow super nutritious plants (the benefits are kind of endless)

3. Dirt is referred to in the field as, put simply, lifeless parent material. Little to no organic matter and no biology (or solely bacteria)

4. Soil is parent material +organic matter +living organisms **you need all three of these things to have healthy soils** 

There are lots of different composting methods but the main factor I think that is important to be aware of is if it is anaerobic (without oxygen) or aerobic (with oxygen). Most of us are familiar with aerobic, thermophilic composting, meaning we are introducing air and monitoring the temperature of a pile. For the sake of not confusing everyone, this is the type of composting we can focus on. In an aerobic, thermophilic pile, you are taking your “greens” (i.e. food scraps, this is considered the “high-in-nitrogen” material) and your “browns” (i.e. “high-in-carbon” material, fall leaves, wood chips, shredded paper), mixing them together and making sure there is adequate water and oxygen. Why do we keep talking about carbon and nitrogen?? They are the two most important elements needed for decomposition, and they’re EVERYWHERE. Did you know that nitrogen, just before oxygen, is the most abundant gas in our atmosphere?? Sups cool. The microorganisms chow down on the organic matter, pulling those elemental compounds apart and excreting, yes pooping out, what are called exudates or plant available nutrients/food. The microorganism has the ability to metabolize certain nutrients so it’s easier for the plant to absorb. Aside from all of the positive benefits, separating your organics diverts food waste from landfills which would otherwise decompose improperly, creating noxious greenhouse gasses like methane that add to the climate crisis. Not good!

Can anybody compost? Here in NYC even with no access to a yard?

Everyone can compost in NYC!!! Unfortunately, we are pretty behind the ball in terms of educating about compost and having the infrastructure for everyone to participate BUT we are pushing our elected officials to make this a priority so it is less cumbersome to participate. People need an easy button, not everyone is willing to walk to their local farmer’s market or drop-off location to participate. That is a lot of what the conversation is right now, how do we scale up and make it more convenient. 

I’ve seen some articles on composting clothes. What’s your take?!?! 

I love the idea of composting clothes! However, my mind first jumps to feasibility. A lot of our clothes these days are made with synthetic fibers and treated with harsh chemicals. Although it may not be harmful for us to wear (depending on who you are talking to hehe), these materials and chemicals are not degradable by these microorganisms (or would take centuries to do the job, even then, those chemicals runoff as leachate and end up in our waterways). I would love to see less petroleum-based synthetic fibers and more natural, but it’s going to take time and education. We have to follow the money always; at this point it’s “cheaper” to make synthetic fibers, I put that into quotes because we aren’t able to quantify fully the future environmental impacts this has and even the facts we have now are quieted for the sake of keeping the people making these products making money.

What are the requirements of composting clothes correctly?

At this point, it looks like step one of composting clothes in ensuring that your material is natural and free of chemicals. Step two is shredding them down into smaller pieces; remember, these are microscopic organisms we’re talking about that are doing the work, so the more surface area we can give them to work, the faster and more efficient that will be. Step three would be letting the microbes eat away at the material until it is disintegrated. Any sort of chemical used to treat these materials is adding an inhibiting factor for decomposition.

What is your vision/fantasy for composting in the future? For you? For us? For the world?! 

My vision for composting starts with everyone acknowledging the damage that has been done thus far. Actually acknowledging that these practices are nothing new, indigenous peoples all over the world have been practicing regenerative land stewardship for millennia but have been removed from the conversation in the name of exploitation and profit. We cannot move forward if we aren’t willing to understand how we got where we are.  I envision farmers being able to grow food without worry of a drought or hurricane because the soil is healthy and able to maintain it’s balance; or that they don’t have to buy synthetic fertilizers, that end up running off into our clean water supply, that are derived from fossil fuels because their soil is lacking nitrogen. I’ve learned a lot about soil from a biological and chemical standpoint, but also from a spiritual one. I imagine a world where we no longer “other” nature as something that is separate from ourselves. We are nature, we are able to bend and change and transform when something no longer suits us; not to be thrown away or seen as useless, but actually as a resource for something new. I imagine a world where we are not scared of nature, of ourselves.

Here are a couple pages I came across while answering these questions!!

http://compost.css.cornell.edu/chemistry.html

http://thebokashibucket.com/microbes-soil-plants-how-do-they-all-work-together/

This is the article that got me thinking about composting clothes:

https://ecocult.com/compost-your-clothes?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-ecocultcom&utm_content=later-25665560&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkin.bio

After reading this article I reached out to Desi to see what she had to say. We decided that we should just try composting some different fabrics and see how we do! The Button up Breakdown (the Denim Digest) was born. We picked 3 weights of (what we think are made with) “natural” 100% undyed cotton; a 10oz duck cotton, a light weight canvas and a loose gauze. We cut the fabric into small pieces and wrapped them each individually in plastic mesh. Of course it would be most ideal to cut the fabrics into small pieces and mix them in with the compost piles but DUH we want to track and document the breakdown progress with you dolls! We actually started this project weeks ago, Desi volunteers at a community compost site so she threw the bags in one Sunday when they were starting a brand new pile. Unfortunately, we had a few flubs and we have to start over. BUTT we are starting again this week!  We’ll check in with ya’ll regularly and share the progress. 

Hey You

Salutations Earthlings. This pink polka dot set was supposed to happen but then COVID.

I wanted to talk a little bit about how much I love and appreciate ya’ll. Thanks for buying my jeans because I love making them and I love squeezing them on ya’ll. Thanks for showing up through all this for other humans. Thank you for making me change and learn and see the world a little more how it is. You all were out there this year talking shit and protesting, tearing shit down, building things up, finding new and better ways to feed folks in our city, teaching folks for free, donating your unemployment dollars and/or out in the trenches working and riding the subway when it didn’t feel safe, organizing, sharing, fighting. I just wanted to take a quick moment to look at you all and admire you.

Also keep being wonderful and weirdo freaks, mmmkay?

Fadez Madez in the Shadez

Lets talk fadez. I talk a lot about this topic because I love a good fade, I just do. It’s one of the reasons I started making jeans in the first place. The raw Indigo Classics are my first style and give the best fade of any other jeans hands down, but you should try for yourself.

How to make a good fade:

Wear the shit out of your jeans. That’s it. How to make the best fades? Keep reading.

You can make great fades with all kinds of jeans but I recommend a raw, heavy weight denim, (ahem like the raw Indigo Classics, made with a 14.5 oz. raw denim).

Wear them everyday. The more you wear your raw denim jeans the better they’ll look and feel. 

Do not wash your jeans. There are a lot of reasons why I don’t wash my jeans often. However, regarding fades, the indigo leaves your jeans uniformly when you launder them, when you don’t wash them, the indigo rubs away at the creases. The longer you go without washing them the more intense the fades.

Raw Indigo Classics

There are quicker ways to make fades in your jeans. Denim nerds may call this cheating but honestly fuck them. Some people use sandpaper at the creases. You can always wash your jeans (I usually just use the washing machine on cold) then soak them in an oxy clean solution for at least 6 hours. Wash them again then lay them flat to dry. This method works well if you have been wearing your jeans for at least 2 months without washing so that you develop pretty deep creases. Remember your raw denim shrinks when you wash them so make sure you have read about washing raw denim

The Anatomy of a Fade:

Whiskers - fades at the fly just above your leg and through your hips.

Whisker Fadez

Honeycombs - the wear behind your knees. The design looks like a honeycomb

Honeycomb Fadez JK! ButI usually don’t get these fadez in my jeans bc of how they fit…

Stack Fades - fades at the bottom of the legs, just above the leg hole where jeans can tend to crease and wrinkle.

Stack Fadez

Since the denim world has been traditionally gatekeepen (is that even a word?) by white cis men, the language that has developed around fades has been very specific to how said men have worn jeans. But, since humans including but not limited to, non binary folks, women and femme identifying folks, trans folks, humans all along the gender spectrum, fat folks, people of every race and body type all around the world and all through the universe have been wearing jeans too - different fades may and do happen. What are these fades? Do you all have a particular fade that you have noticed that I haven’t mentioned? Write it in the comments below!

I HAVE DISCOVERED A NEW FADE!!!! I wear me jeans goddamn tight and I have noticed there is a particular crease fade that happens where the butt meets the leg. I have named these the fadez down under, the Oz fadez.

Oz Fadez

Cue the delicious Aussie accents!!!!

Cuffed n' Tucked

I love to wear long ass jeans over platforms - I’ve been doing it for years and I probably won’t stop anytime soon. However, when I released the TINAS, which are more narrow through the leg, I hemmed them short, cuffed them and never looked back (except to see if you were looking).

Let’s talk about hems.

What is a hem? It’s the edge of the leg opening. Hemming is the sewing process of shortening the length or finishing the bottom edge on a pair of jeans. Hemming uses a method of double folding the raw fabric edge of the leg openings into itself to make a clean smooth edge. 

When I was working at Loren, the beloved denim shop just off the G Nassau stop in Greenpoint, there were 3 hems one could get (of course there are a number of ways to finish a hem, but let’s start here). A regular hem, a chain stitch hem and an original hem. Well what’s the difference?

• A regular hem is when your jeans get a ½ inch seam sewn with a regular straight lock stitch. This is the simplest and the cheapest. It could also look like your mom hemmed your jeans for you, you know what I’m talking about, gah head, have a look.

(Mom hem pic 1) does the job but……...

• A chain stitch hem - a chain stitch is one continuous thread that loops back on itself. It is  stretchier than lock stitches, which is why you find them in places such as the waistband and leg seams of jeans. Hems sewn with vintage chain-stitching machines develop a desired roping effect after washing because the hem twists around itself. The rippled hem was originally considered a defect. Now it’s a sought after look, I’d say a quintessential denim detail. #chainstitchhem

(Chain stitch pic 2:) see how the thread loops back on itself creating a “chain stitch” Also notice the wear on the rippled hem that gives that desired roping effect.

• Original hem - this is cutting the original hem off and saving it to sew back on after the leg has been shortened. This is good if you want to have that worn in seam without working in the wear. Also to avoid “mom hem”. #originalhem

(Original hem pic 3:) you can see in the lower leg that the raw edge of the fabric is folded over and the original hem is sewn back on.

Now that we’ve hemmed our jeans, let’s talk cuff. I read a bunch of articles about cuffs on some nerdy denim blogs and basically they’re stupid. My list is stupid too. And leans waaaaay towards my interests and style.

Single Cuff - roll those jeans up once and show off your chain stitch hem and/or the white side of your jeans

Double Cuff - a cuff, but rolled twice. I don’t like this cuff bc to me it looks like your jeans are too long and you haven’t taken the time to hem them. It doesn't look like it’s on purpose, know what I mean? Lots of people do this so actually, what do I know?

Tight Roll - I love an opportunity to do I tight roll. My big sister used to do this when I was little and I’ll be forever obsessed. This is when you take your baggy-ish pants cross the leg opening horizontally to tighten around your ankle then fold up. Usually you have to fold twice to make it stay. 80’s highschool fantasy baby.

Fat Rock-a-Billy Cuff - ugh I live for this (rock and) roll. I forever love a rock-a-billy look, I just do. So go ahead and roll it up, the bigger the better.

Cuffed n’ Tucked - me and my friend Garrido didn’t make this cuff up but we may be the first to give it this great name. This is when you cuff your jeans then tuck them in your cowboy boots. Usually this is when you’re wearing straight leg jeans that won’t fit over your boots.

Bubble Cuff - this is when you’re wearing bell bottoms and knee high boots. You make a fat roll at the top of your boots because the jeans are too wonderfully bulky to tuck inside said boots.

• See my post in Instagram today to get a look at these different cuffs 

• Is there a hem or cuff you prefer? Mention it in the comment section below!

Rivets, A Riveting Story

Denim trousers became jeans when Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada in the 1860’s and 1870s, had the bright idea of putting rivets at the stress points of denim pants. Rumor has it that a woman begged him to figure out how to make her husband’s work trousers more durable so she didn’t have to spend so much time repairing them. How many great ideas are at the very least inspired by women, hhhhhhm?

Jacob had the bright idea of using rivets after noticing them on a horse blanket in his studio. He knew this was a great idea so the tailor reached out to his friend, Levi Strauss, to ask him to front the money for a patent. Mr Strauss agreed and in May of 1873 “Rivet Waist Overalls” were born.

Levi Strauss was a shrewd businessman who made a good living selling wholesale goods such as clothing, blankets and dry goods to small general stores throughout the west. Once the “Gold Rush” started booming, miners needed rugged durable trousers that could stand up to the hard physical work done in those gold minds. Rivet Waist Overalls sales soared. (Levi Struass was born in a city called BUTTENHEIM, that is all)

The first Levi’s had one pocket in the back on the right side, two pockets in the front and a small watch pocket (as well as a cinch in the back and buttons for overalls). This design is simply known as XX, which at the time was an industry standard to illustrate the high quality in construction and good quality denim. By 1901 Levi’s looked pretty much like they do today (with belt loops to be added in 1922), a 5 pocket design. There were rivets at the corners of each pocket including the cute little watch pocket and maybe my favorite placement, the crotch rivet.

Here’s a look at the fist XX Levi’s design, one pocket in the back and look at that yoke!

During WWII the rivets on the watch pocket came off to assist with the war effort.

By the 1900’s more folks besides gold miners were involved in strenuous work and needed durable trousers as well. Enter the American Cowboy. Cowboys started wearing Levis but found that the rivets on the back pockets were scratching their leather saddles. First the company tried to remedy the situation by covering the rivets with heavy denim, but the rivets would eventually bust through. By the 1940’s the rivets at the corners of the back pockets were eventually replaced by a tac stitch.

This is an ad showing how cowboys don’t have to worry because now all the rivets in the back are covered.

The 1940s also sees the disappearance of another rivet, the crotch rivet. This story brings me so much joy and is the kind of little piece of history that I live for. By 1941 the crotch rivet was removed because when the cowboys would get cold at night on the range, they would squat near the fire to get warm, but the crotch rivet would heat up and become 4.5mm of hellish fiery heat that it would end up searing the cowboys d*cks!! HAHA! There were so many complaints that Levi’s had no choice but to replace the heat conducting piece of copper with a safer tac stitch. This story is so good that Levi’s made a little video about it in the 90s.

By the 1950’s “Light Blue” casual slacks and the “Family Line” were created which means that any sexiness that lingered around the jeans was dead. Just Kidding! By the 1950s jeans had taken over and were seen on all the sexy rebels. But this is a story of rivets. The rivets were what made denim trousers “Jeans”. They were what made the pants so durable and I believe what has made the style so enduring. I love the way a copper rivet looks on a pair of blue jeans, so classic. I love the way they look on my jeans. But what I especially love is how they secure the belt loops so you can pull those tight jeans over your butt over and over again.

Sex pot Marlon Brando from the set of The Wild Ones on the left and James Dean on the right

A pair of the raw Merica Lee Indigo Classics with copper rivets

What is Denim?

I get the question all the time what is the difference between denim and jeans. The simplest way to answer that question is that denim is the material and jeans are the garments made from that material.

So what then is denim you ask? Allow me to answer as briefly and as simply as I can. Denim is really all about the way the fabric is woven. It is a durable twill fabric which means there is a diagonal pattern easily seen on the reverse side of the fabric. See image 1

Image 1: You can see the diagonal pattern here making it a twill fabric

The denim I generally use is a heavier weight (the raw Classic Indigos are 14.5ozs - but we’ll discuss ounces in a later post), a 3 by 1 weave.That means there are 3 warp threads (the threads that run up and down) to 1 weft thread (the thread that runs long ways). The warp threads are dyed with Indigo and the weft threads are left undyed so they remain white. That’s why the facing or right side of the fabric is blue while the other side is white. You can easily see this when you cuff your jeans. See image 2

Image 2: The facing is blue while the other side is white.

Fun fact! Genoese sailors (see pic 3) wore denim because it was such a durable fabric and also because it was easier to repair than other materials. When the Indigo warp threads would rip and wear away, many times the weft threads would remain making repairs much simpler. I’m sure you have noticed this when your jeans have ripped. See image 4.

Image 3: This image is most likely not of a sailor although it was very common to have children working on ships at this time, however it is most likely what the denim garments looked like, including all of the small repairs.

Image 4: See the weft thread remaining making it easier to repair.

Direct to Consumer

Making jeans and sourcing notions and denim in America is fuckin’ expensive. I want my jeans to be affordable but I also want to make sure that Luis who sews my jeans is paid well because he does an incredible INCREDIBLE job - have you seen my jeans? You could wear them inside out, they’re sewn so well. Part of the reason my jeans look so good is because my pattern maker rules and she should be paid well too. And don’t forget the denim, that has to be nice and well made otherwise why bother making jeans. Am I right? Put all that together and start thinking wholesale and retail and you have one expensive goddamn pair of jeans.

I have decided to cut out the wholesale and retail part and sell DIRECT TO CONSUMER so that I can make Merica Lee Jeans somewhat affordable for all my bbs who love to wear tight ass jeans.

I can’t make my jeans as cheap as Kohls denim or even Levi’s but we gotta make sure we’re taking care of everybody at each stage of production; from the folks at the factory that weave the denim to the person washing them after they’re sewn. Also I love being able to offer free alterations - you can’t get that at H&M.

The TINA MIDNIGHTS were my first foray into pre-order as well as Direct to Consumer. It was a great learning experience. I’ll have to jouj the price a tad, but I’ll continue to make the best possible product at the most affordable price.

I’m legit obsessed with making jeans. I love nothing more than squeezing ya’ll in Merica Lees. I hope I get to do it forever!

Why Vintage?

I sat down with Brooke Goldberg from Pussy Willow Vintage to ask 5 Questions about vintage and if she thought shopping vintage could save the world!

Merica: Okay, so five questions about vintage. How did you get into vintage?

Brooke: My sister is eight years older than me, and I remember when she started shopping at thrift stores and I insisted on her bringing me because she started looking so cool.

Merica: Yeah?

Brooke: I was like, she looks like a rock star’s girlfriend.

Merica: Oh my God, okay.

Brooke: I want to look like that - I’m just now getting that right - I feel like, okay, I’m kind of looking like a rock star’s girlfriend.

Merica: Oh, fuck yeah.

Brooke: It only took me 25 years.

Merica: Listen, it takes a long time! And then what do you love about working with vintage?

Brooke: I love everything about it. I love the individuality of the pieces I find and that it’s not what you’re seeing all over the streets. And that it has a history to it. The quality was so much better because people just gave a shit and took their time and things were made with more integrity. I have so many vintage pieces made in the US, or made in France, and they’re 100% cotton or 100% silk and I will sell them to you for a fraction of the price than those big department stores.

Merica: Right. It’s not just like an Old Navy Oxford or whatever.

Brooke: Yeah, fashion has turned more into a consumption thing as opposed to expressing yourself through what you wear.

Merica: Yeah. Also, I feel like with vintage you get pieces that, generally, nobody else has.

Brooke: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Merica: Do you think buying vintage could be the answer to the problem of so much waste in the fashion industry?

Brooke: Yeah, I do. I think you hit the nail on the head. I have to go into a Zara or Top Shop for work sometimes and it’s just it’s sickening to see all these things that are just thrown on the floor. The way things are treated, it’s like nobody cares because it’s not special. Everything seems disposable in a way. I also feel like all the fun has been taken out of fashion because it’s just so accessible. I remember before I would be so stoked to find a pair of platforms because that was a rarity. You had to find it. Things have become really boring because they’re everywhere, and it’s just - I don’t know. I like to express myself with fashion through every fucking decade. But mainly the sixties and seventies.

Merica: Yeah, the best years! And then what do you think is the difference between thrift clothes and vintage?

Brooke: Thrift clothes are, I would say second hand, but then the vintage is hand selected. I’ve done my homework for the past two decades of what’s special and where things come from, and why, and what to look for, and designers, and different eras. My specialty is I will do the dirty work to make someone look cool.

Merica: I feel like because of your background with your family you have a honed skill.

Brooke: Yes you are right. You’re right. I have a very strong connection to the past. My parents had a packing business, and I remember when I was nine I started packing with them and this family called the Yaffeys, who were crazy, but the woman gave me this disco shirt and the tags had kisses on it.

Merica: Oh my God.

Brooke: ... with these big red lips. It’s a black gold metallic halter with a cow neck.

Merica: Oh my gosh.

Brooke: I was nine.

Merica: Do you still have it?

Brooke: Yeah.

Merica: No shit, do you?

Brooke: Yeah, it’s so great.

Merica: That’s so fucking cool.

Merica: Wait, one more question for you. Do you have any tips on vintage, or thrift store shopping?

Brooke: Well, I’d say, When I comb through a rack, I just find a print that really appeals to me, and then I touch it, and then I see if it’s worth looking at the tag and then if something ... I don’t buy things that are made in China because I generally think those are poorer quality and not really vintage if it’s made in China. But, if you find something that was made in Hong Kong, or made in Korea, those things were when China was not mass marketing clothes at that point.

Merica: They’re special pieces?

Brooke: Yeah. You can tell if something is vintage by where it’s made, generally.

Merica: Oh, okay. Boom. Perfect.

Brooke: Yeah. Always shop USA, baby!

Merica: Yeah, baby!

A Merica Lee x Raging Bush collab

Your favorite Premier Panties painstakingly hand embroidered with a choice of 3 cheeky designs.

“It’s as if the burning bush ignored jesus and spoke directly to Mary Magdalene”

Sold exclusively via Instagram DM’s @mericalee

break in your Merica Lee's

Geanpoint Pop-Up at Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn Aug 24–26

Kick-off party on Friday from 6–10 with free mezcal cocktails and free chainstitch with purchase!

Geanpoint Pop-Up at Wythe Hotel covered in AM NY!

Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem loves her Premier Panties!

Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem found her favorite underwear! Merica Lee Premier Panties!