Factory Visits - Introduction

I like production.

Like many others I tend to look at the country of origin before purchasing a piece of clothing. I prefer my garments made in Denmark, England, France, Germany, Japan or the US. Of course it depends on the actual item and the history of it, but overall I dislike goods made in China, Taiwan or Bangladesh. And I absolutely hate the term "Designed in xx-somewhere-xx".

I also like to see how things are made, what they are made of and what goes into making it. This has lead me to hours of research on the Internet and in books of all sorts. I'm really curious and always eager to learn something new. Always.

It has even lead me to actually wanting to create stuff of my own, which means I'm now making things out of leather, mostly. I also collect tools, fabrics, sewing machines and books about all sorts of crafts.

With some influence from other bloggers like Michael Williams of ACL who started visiting factories in the US, I have also been visiting some factories and craftsmen in Denmark in order to document their bare existence.

Generally, when I speak with people in the fashion industry I always get the response, when I talk about local production, that there is nothing left in Denmark. I didn't accept that answer, and did some research of my own, and I discovered that there are still some makers left. Which is an idiosyncrasy, as the Danish garment industry used to employ a lot of people in the past.

In the last year or so some of the remaining makers have closed or even worse, outsourced their production. So it's a race against time to document the ones that are still producing clothing related goods in Denmark, however I intend to give it a try.

This will be an ongoing subject on After the Denim. And soon I'll post about some Danish leather craftsmen with an amazing heritage.

Now, if you want some factory porn right away, head over to Secret Forts and see his visit to Stanley & Sons' studio right here.

Also if you happen to know any Danish makers, factories, craftsmen or women or you have some stories from the garment industry in Denmark, please feel free to comment, I would love to hear from you.

CFW: Hansen Garments

Copenhagen Fashion Week is normally not something to look forward to. Most brands and designers show the same stuff over and over again.

But there are some exceptions, of course. A brand that caught my interest very early on is the Danish brand, Hansen Garments. So if you want to see something good while attending fashion week, go see Hansen at their set up on Værnedamsvej in Copenhagen. If you are not in Copenhagen, pray that someone puts up some pics of the new collection.

What sets Hansen apart from the rest of the Danish brands is their genuine interest in having their stuff crafted in Scandinavia. Besides the local production, they use top notch materials (indigo dyed selvage cotton, heavy twills, muskox wool, to name a few) and the details are equally amazing (I still dream about the horn cat-eye buttons and the beautiful handmade embroidery on a coat I saw)

With the whole heritage thing that has been going on for years now, one might fear that Hansen is another company just reproducing stuff, but that is a misconception. The line is much more fashion forward, and timeless, than that and I mean that in the best possible way. There are tons of what you might call repro brands, but most of them lack fashion sense, and there are tons of fashion brands that lack solid ethics and a good sensibility in many ways - Hansen Garments is firmly set somewhere in between.

I have been in contact with both Åse (the designer) and Per (second in command) several times (probably too many times) over the last year or so and they have been very friendly. I share their interest for local production, so I have been trying to help them find more craftsmen and craftswomen. This also means that I'll most likely be covering them more closely in the future as well as visiting some of the people who make some of their garments. Meanwhile, do check out their blog.

Now, my only hope is that I can somehow get to see their SS'12 collection soon and hopefully add some of their clothing to my own wardrobe as well.