PROJECT NEW YORK | Heritage, Customization, Individualization @ Hartford Denim Co.

 

 Jeans and more at Hartford Denim Co., on view at the Project New York show this past week. Customization is king at Hartford, where this precise, built-by-hand so you can break-'em-in denim company has a shop.

Dave, one of the three bearded business partners (he's the one on the right, looking right, with a denim bag in his hands) of the Connecticut-based company that's been in biz for just over a year now, said they may go wholesale soon, personalizing their signature customization to each retail outlet.

Elk leather, below, is a major component and signature material used for bags, jackets, even the state-shaped Hartford logo.

 Love this, from their website:

"If at any time any product purchased from or built by Hartford Denim rips, busts,
bursts or shreds, we will gladly fix it free of charge or judgment."

Bugle Boy Blast from the Past!

Look what Rachel Spevak, former DNR colleague and fellow stripe-meister of mine, brought to the menswear party last night!

Initially, I couldn't figure out where we were (or what were we thinking?!).  Rachel had marked the photo on the back June 1987. Whoa! I thought it was one of the grand parties out in Vegas during Magic, but the timing was wrong. The more I looked, I see we're standing in front of a boat and then it came to me. East 23rd Street Boat Landing, a Bugle Boy event during Young Men's Market on a party boat. Obviously, the dress called for "nautical" that night!

Note our identical striped mock neck big shirts, my matching messenger bag, ankle socks, leather fisherman sandals and, in a prior-to-when-she-was-born shout-out to The Man Repeller, "birth-control glasses" from back in the day.

So, who can tell me where we shopped back then? I'll throw out a few, see what ya think ...Antique Boutique, Canal Jeans, Reminiscence, If Boutique on West 8th Street?...

The winner gets kudos for their fashion stripes!