When Self Edge opened up shop in New York at the end of July my understanding of denim was turned upside down. In fact all prior knowledge of denim at that point, as accurate as I may have thought, might as well have been tossed out the window. Thanks to the watchful and educated eye of Self Edge New York owners Kiya Babzani, Demitra Georgopoulos, Andrew Chen and Johan Lam I was introduced to the world of Japanese denim. Self Edge caters to the denim connoisseur carrying some the world's finest denim manufactures from Iron Heart, Sugar Cane, Imperial, Flat Head, 3sixteen to Real Japan Blues.
After getting a detailed narrative of the history of Japanese denim and an indepth look at each brand carried in the New York store I decided to try on just about every pair of jeans in the shop, with the exception of the Mister Freedom line (sorry Christophe Loiron I just do not understand the denim collection). After narrowing down the arsenal of denim one brand seemed to surface to the top. This jean not only provided me the cut and fit I had been looking for but it also offered the minimalist pocket detailing and clean aesthetic. The denim of choice was the 3sixteen collection.
Now you might be thinking that this is a bias interpretation of the denim seeing that I did in fact call 3sixteen home for the past 6 months, but I can honestly tell you that the detail and craftsmanship of the jeans were far superior to anything I had tried. Now I am aware that brands like Iron Heart have put out a 23.5 oz denim that retails for $450 but for an intern justifying a purchase like that did not make sense. I needed something that came in around the $200 mark and didn't have "F*** Em" stitched into the back pocket.
I guess long story short is I cleared out the four pairs of denim I had come to New York with on eBay and stepped into a pair of Grey 3sixteen ST 300's. The Slim Tapper 300's are made of 14oz Kaihara denim and feature gunmental rivets, a minimally branded leather tag, button fly and clean back pockets. The slim cut jean provided a great form fit that became my solo pair of jeans for almost three months. The three month test drive led to the addition of two more pairs: the SL 100x and the ST 100x. Both the SL 100x and the ST 100x are made of 14oz Kaihara Selvedge Indigo denim and feature similar attributes to the ST 300 in terms of hardware and stitching. The denim is not only a great price point denim but is starting to work in quite nicely.