Jorts (alias: jean shorts) are our friends. Either that, or they’re our mortal enemies—It’s hard to tell. In any case, jorts never leave us for long; they seem to go in and out of style faster than Kanye West can embarrass himself.
If you are fan of jorts, you may want to join the Facebook group, I Love Jorts!, which fawns, “Spreading like the sexiest plague to ever wipe out lameness, jorts are a potent mixture of denim and leg.” Those who disagree can retort by uploading their latest photo evidence to nojorts.com, an anti-jort website.
As you can see, jorts are a controversial garment, one that indiDenim will have to take a purely neutral stand on. The rest of you can duke it out…
For those jorts fans out there who prefer a little bit more coverage, there is a wide variety of styles to consider.
Jeremy Priven shows us how to rock a bermuda jort.
Cuffing can give your old jorts a brand new look.
Cutoffs will take you from jeans to jorts in no time flat.
And don’t forget one of the newest additions to the jorts family—“pockouts”!
posted by: danielle on August 12, 2010 at 10:22 am
filed under:Misc Musings
TAGS:
jorts
As much as we’re obsessed with everything denim, indi is all about customization. Consumers today expect increasingly more personalized products, customized to their style preferences and, when it comes to apparel, their bodies. In the world of customization there are two major camps: custom-made (i.e. a traditional custom tailor) and mass customization, which enables consumers to design their own individual products that are then manufactured on an efficient, massive scale, keeping prices competitive with non-custom products.
indi was recently approached by Custommade.com, a website dedicated to everything custom and specializing in artisan custom-made furniture and woodwork. In the spirit of custom, we did an interview with Custom Made to share two perspectives of customization with you, showing the ins and outs of custom from different approaches yet with a fundamentally similar end goal: matching consumers with products that reflect who they are. We hope this interview will give you insight into indi, how this trend is evolving and where customization is headed in the future. Enjoy!
Question 1: What is your company all about?
indiDenim: indi is about changing the way apparel is sold. Traditionally, consumers have been expected to buy clothes that were made for the masses, not a unique garment specifically made to fit their bodies and style aesthetic. At indi, we believe in giving every consumer the power to design their own apparel and customize it to fit their unique bodies. We are also about making shopping a technologically-enhanced, seamless process. From the online visualization of our custom products to our completely automated systems for pattern generation and order processing, indi is technologically advanced throughout the consumer experience and behind the scenes.
CustomMade: President Mike Salguero’s words say it best! “In my travels I have come across some incredibly talented custom woodworkers, craftspeople and artisans who are unable to focus on their craft because they are running a business. Their dedication to their art is compromised by their need to divert attention to the marketing, advertising and sales of their creations. I wanted to assist these people and created CustomMade.com to help.” We also believe that there are a ton of consumers out there interested in buying Custom, but they don’t know where to start…our site will help both makers and consumers to bridge the frictions that exist in this marketplace and will help them to get in touch with each other.
Question 2: How did you get your start?
indiDenim: Our “About Us” section of our site really says it best: “In our eyes, the way clothing is sold is an anachronism. The current system of mass produced, standard sized clothing is convenient for the companies selling the apparel, but doesn’t work all that well for a lot of consumers. We founded indi to change all that - rather than individual consumers of all shapes and sizes trying to fit into standard sized clothing, we think consumers ought to be able to get exactly what they want in a size that fits them.”
CustomMade: Custom Made started with one artisan working out of his home fourteen years ago as an online community for woodworkers to come together and post their custom creations online. In 2009, co-founders Mike Salguero and Seth Rosen saw the potential such an organization had and purchased the company, gave it a new look and feel, and started to change the way custom was looked at by artisans and consumers alike. Within a year, a community of 350 woodworkers has grown to over 1,000 of the highest caliber woodworkers,metal workers, and glass workers in the world.
Question 3: What are some of the challenges you face as a custom company?
indiDenim: Fit is very personal, and understanding the perfect fit for our customers is definitely a challenge. Because we’re custom we set the bar pretty high in terms of fit, just like our consumers. In fact, we guarantee that if for any reason our customers aren’t 100% satisfied, we’ll remake their garment at no charge or give them a full refund. Although this can be challenging, we absorb these costs willingly, knowing that we instill confidence in our customers that the end result will be a perfect-fitting garment that they can always re-order, time and time again.
CustomMade: Our biggest issues right now are related to getting the right people involved with our company.. We currently have 25 people working full-time on this idea, but we need more. We are always looking for marketing, web-design and development, and salespeople. In addition, we have a challenge of convincing consumers to buy custom.. You would think it is a no-brainer, since they can get something locally made, handcrafted, with 5x the quality for a similar price, but the big-box retailers dominate the advertising out there, so it is hard for the little guy to compete.
Question 4: What are your focuses/strong points at the present?
indiDenim: indi provides an ideal shopping experience for the tech-savvy consumer. Our Jean Builder lets consumers see a real-time visualization of their jean change as they pick every style feature of their jean. Consumers can also save their designs in our community vault, where consumers can share designs via social media networks and/or choose any jean from the vault, customize it to fit them, and buy it. We also save our customers’ patterns forever, allowing them to re-order the same pattern with or without adjustments and get a perfect fit, every time. In short, indi provides the most personalized, technologically-advanced experience available, making mass customization fun and easy.
CustomMade: We have a group of the best artisans in the country in the fields of woodworking, glass working and metalworking. These guys and gals are being serviced by our website. We also bring in about 1 Million visitors a year and expose them to the idea of purchasing custom, which is fun and a challenge, but we feel that we do it well!
Question 5: What is your vision for the future of the company?
indiDenim: We intend to get to know our consumers more and more, developing more style content on our site that would interest our audience. We recently launched new style pages and a DenimWiki, packed with useful information on denim history, mass customization, a glossary of denim terminology, and more. We will continue to understand our consumers’ needs from a user experience standpoint, but also a product standpoint, always striving to ensure our patterns fit every consumer perfectly.
CustomMade: We want to be the internet’s one stop shop for anything custom. We are not interested in the manufacturing, rather we want to get you the consumer in front of the right provider of custom services.
Thank you to Custommade.com for participating in this interview! Let us know your feedback and feel free to share your comments!
posted by: evan on August 10, 2010 at 12:26 pm
filed under:Misc Musings
TAGS:
custom
In shopping for apparel, most of us are faced with a great contradiction: shopping for trends and defining our own style. While of course many of us love to stay current with latest fashion trends, it is just as important (and we argue more so) to establish a unique look, expressing your personal style through fashion.
The solution seems to be in the great diversity of options that the apparel industry offers. When looking for a white blouse, for instance, we all know there are infinite options out there, many of them that look identical. Yet how many of these designs are both fashionable AND unique? How can we really be sure the “one-of-a-kind” apparel we buy is such? Are there even protections to ensure that the things we buy aren’t merely knock-offs?
Believe it or not, there is no copyright protection for fashion designs in the US, meaning that anyone can slightly alter an existing design and call it their own. From a recent Ted Talk by Johanna Blakely entitled “Lessons from Fashion’s Free Culture,” Blakely discusses this lack of copyright protection in the fashion industry as both a blessing and a curse.
Essentially Blakely argues that it is more difficult than ever, due to our limitless access to information through digital media, to define ownership of anything anymore, be it a joke, a recipe, or a fashion design. While the lack of copyrights thankfully makes creativity flourish, taking older designs and transforming them into something “new”, too much creativity can make it hard to call anything original. Watch the whole Ted Talk below:
So what does this mean for your personal style? It means that if you want truly unique apparel (without paying couture prices), your options are pretty limited. It means that the apparel industry has created a top-down system in which consumers are expected to reflect “new” fashion trends, and not the other way around. It means that while we’re all about (some) reemerging trends and the awesome creativity of the fashion industry, we believe one shouldn’t be forced to choose between ever-changing trends and what compliments our personal style and body types.
Thankfully, indiDenim makes every garment to your measurements, to your style specifications, and only for you. We allow you to take a trend like skinny jeans and make them truly your own. Not to mention the fact that our fit technology used to create your unique pattern, our modular manufacturing processes, and our online customization platform make us a one-of-a-kind apparel brand.
So feel good, indiDenim lovers, for your apparel is really some of the only one-of-a-kind stuff out there. As Blakely states, there are plenty of advantages of copying, including the democratization of fashion trends. At indiDenim we feel that we are democratizing fashion even further, allowing all consumers to not only have access to fashion trends but to make them their own.
posted by: evan on May 27, 2010 at 5:10 pm
filed under:Misc Musings
TAGS:
It’s time for a little humor this Friday afternoon…we here at indi believe in the importance of dressing right for your body type. After all, wearing something that fits you perfectly is one sure way to look your best. Fit should always come first before you consider any hot trends or coveted styles. This is especially true when it comes to your jeans.
One of the most common fit problems we see is the “Plumber’s Crack”.
The plumber’s crack happens when one wears jeans with a low waistband leaving the butt exposed at times during bending, squatting and/or sitting down. The act of showing more than people want to see can bring all sorts of reactions and emotions. When I see this mishap happen, I normally can’t help, however painful it is, but stare at the problem head on. This is only because I find it unbelievable that some remain completely unaware of what’s happening.
News flash: exposed butt cracks are not a sexy look. And while the obvious solution would be just to buy jeans with the appropriate rise, others went out of their way to come up with a creative way to give their cracks some flare. Case in point:
This plumber’s crack-friendly patch is supposedly adhesive, hypoallergenic and decorative… enough to cover something that’s inappropriately exposed and to bring a whole different level of embarrassment that I didn’t think was possible until now. You can decide if the patch is cute or not. It also comes with two replacement tapes if you have some doubts on its adhesive staying power. Then again, we suggest you simply raise your back rise. Just sayin’. Happy Friday!
posted by: Eunice Tanos on May 7, 2010 at 3:37 pm
filed under:Misc Musings
TAGS:
Top of the morning to you denim lovers! And happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
I enjoy a good Saint Patty’s day celebration- delicious pub grub, shamrock shakes, green beer, and yes, even Lucky Charms!, but the worst part about today is the pinching.
Ever since that fateful day in first grade when I forgot to wear green, I’ve always been sure to mark March 17th on my calendar and to make sure that I’m properly attired. Today, thankfully, here in the office (most) all of us are decked in green, and will remain pinch free.
At indiDenim, we are also safe from pinching today for another reason: because we all wear indi jeans. It’s true that for some people, pinching is a problem 365 days a year- because their jeans do not fit properly. Jeans can be too tight in the waist and loose in the seat, or pinching in the thighs and gaping at the waist. We’ve all fallen victim to denim fit disasters at one time or another. Not that it’s entirely our fault, because really, it can be nearly impossible to find the perfect fit in your typical store.
indiDenim is proud to be not so typical. Personally, ever since my first grade incident I have sworn off the playground pinching episodes, and ever since I’ve discovered indi I’ve sworn off pinching denim as well and I hope you will too.
Avoiding the dreaded denim pinch can be tricky, but it helps if you know what to look out for. If you like skinny jeans (we sure do- we are introducing one for our SoMa jean VERY soon) make sure you go with stretch denim to avoid the infamous muffin tops and achy legs. The idea is to hug your curves- not squeeze them!
For you more classic ladies, our Presidio Trouser jean is the perfect way to complement your shape without the pain of too tight pants. They are shapely at the top, with clean lines through the leg- a great look minus pinch or frump (which can be almost as bad!).
For me, the best part of today is the celebration of the color green (okay well, maybe EXCEPT for those shamrock shakes). Now, we don’t make green jeans at indi, but a novelty pair is interesting to imagine, and hey- they might be popular. Not only is green the new black (because as we all know being eco-conscious is both trendy and important), but it’s bright, spring-y, and fun.
Although, now that I’m *really* looking at my Photoshop experiment, I think we better stick to classic jean colors for now, and leave most of the green to those envious of my perfectly tailored indi jeans.
Whether you’re a Mac or a PC, you most likely have an iPhone or iPod Touch. Apple wins when it comes to hand-held devices, but can your jeans handle your gadget?
Courtesy of wtfJeans
An up-and-coming trend is specifically designed iPhone and iPod Touch pockets on the front of the jeans. The micro-fiber interior protects your iPhone or iPod touch and also cleans it when the device is removed from the pocket. Aesthetically I’m not sold because front pockets that look like back pockets just make me think you’re wearing your jeans backwards, but I will withhold an informed opinion until I see these jeans with iPhone/iPod Touch pockets up close and personal.
Would you wear jeans that had a special pocket for your iPhone or iPod? Is it really necessary or something that should have happened a long time ago? Vote in the poll below!
There’s arguably nothing more fashionable right now than going green. Hollywood is doing it, Washington D.C. is doing it, even that guy down the street is doing it. It’s really the cool thing to do and good for the environment (love when that happens).
Not surprisingly, denim is jumping on the “Go Green” bandwagon. With the Sony Recycle Project Jeans initiative, Sony is taking a colorful spin on going green. Taking recently discarded cloth banners that were hanging off the sides of corporate offices, Sony is turning these banners into jeans like you’ve never seen before. Almost like a prank after this transformation, Sony prominently displays the apparel in their original location along the sides of the building where the banners were found.
And no, these jeans are not just art for art’s sake. Look through a pair of binoculars and if you like what you see, terrific. A friendly sales associate will swing down the side of the building to retrieve that special pair for you.
Just another day…
posted by: deborah on February 1, 2010 at 4:05 pm
filed under:Misc Musings
TAGS:
jeans
The earthquake that struck Haiti almost 2 weeks ago has devastated the world. Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas of the country have been demolished and the government believes that the death toll could rise to 300,000 people.
Here at indiDenim, we’ve taken the time to think about this humanitarian crisis and how jeans can help. That’s why we’re proud to support the organization Fashion Delivers, which aims to bring together fashion industries to donate apparel to victims in need across the world. They were founded in 2006 and inspired to act after Hurricane Katrina struck.
Right now, Fashion Delivers is organizing efforts to send apparel and products to Haitians who have been affected by the earthquake and have lost everything. To help, they are calling for a broad assortment of clothing items—jeans included.
If you too would like to support Fashion Delivers and the people of Haiti, please visit their website and fill out the donation form listed at the bottom or the page. Haiti needs our help today and many days to come.
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