A few years ago I became a tailor for Self Edge denim in San Francisco. Through my experience there I learned to appreciate high quality shuttle loom denim that was coming out of Japan. Through working this intimately with denim I learned to ditch polysynthetics and embrace cotton, wool, and leather. Not only do these materials breath better, but leather and cotton have the bonus of getting better looking with age.

I guess all of this is a roundabout way to say that I’ve never really had much interest in fashion, but have finally come to realize the functionality that can come along with some particular fashions. I went from total thrift store shopping to mostly thrift store shopping with the occasional high end jeans purchase. It wasn’t until recently that this interest in clothes really branched out beyond jeans and boots. I remember stumbling upon a post on the BoingBoinghole about a $75 merino wool tee shirt. Most folks who read about the shirt probably thought it was ridiculous amount to pay for an undershirt, but I was fascinated with it. $80 bucks for a shirt may seem ridiculous, but I used to think $300 for jeans was crazy.

After a few months of thinking about it, I started digging through Outlier‘s website for more details about this “wundershirt” when I found their “pivot sleeved” button shirts. These shirts were based on the classic men’s long sleeve button shirt, but the cut was specifically designed for bicyclists. The shirts are cotton with a stain resistant stain… and hella sharp. After trying one at the newly opened Mission Workshop, I fell in love. I love the way they fit, and really digging the pivot design for just plain everyday use. I’ve bought 4. Also: I blogged about this shirt a while ago and referred to it as my Zombie Shirt because of the way the shirt stays tucked in even when arms are outstretched.

BTW, I finally bought one of those merino wool shirts (after 8 months of thinking about it) and it’s become one of the best clothing investments I’ve ever made. They breath fantastically and can be worn several days without washing. So one shirt can be stretched out between washes if needed. Despite being wool, these shirts are knit very finely and feel just like a super soft and light cotton.

I’ve recently completed my “bicycle fashion” with a pair of Quoc Pham “Tourers” shoes. These classic leather shoes have a hard sole with a space for bike cleats. They are designed in London and manufactured in Vietnam. I’ve spent a few days riding in them and they feel better with each ride. I went for a tighter fit and the leather is stretching out nicely.

Until these last few years, I’ve never really given a damn about clothing manufacturers. Even as a teen, I used to rub the labels off of my shoes and clothes, but now I’ve finally found some clothes I can be passionately about. Flathead Jeans, Mr. Freedom, Outlier, and Quoc Pham make great shit… I’m glad I finally came out of my “anti-fashion” shell and found the stuff that works for me. I don’t even think of this as an interest in fashion, to me I’m just geeking out on design/construction/material just like I would geek out on a nice calligraphy pen or bicycle part.

Hey all, just wanted to drop a note about some new products and restocks in my shop.

First off, the physical copies of Beeps and Smudges (my album created with iPhone apps) are now available. You can either get them through DocPop.org/shop or from my bandcamp page. You can also take advantage of Unwoman’s “Twofer” offer and get her new remix cd AND my new album for just $17.99

I’ve also pulled out the last of my selvage denim iPad cases. I think these things are super sexy and a great item for folks who carry their iPad’s with them everywhere. These cases fit all iPads, but I over them in two styles: Fitted and Cuffed.

Boof!, a bizarre comic about when realities clash, is also FINALLY available for purchase. This comic was written, drawn, and painted all within a 24hr period. Get a copy here.

Self Edge & Wild Records Present: The Lower East Side Rockabilly Hob Nob from Self Edge on Vimeo.

The amount of style in this video from a recent Self Edge New York party is completely off the charts. It’s kind of funny to think about how many of these kids may have gotten into rockabilly and swing music through their obsession with 50′s clothing… and their love of that early Americana style clothing came from an obsession with selvage denim… and their obsession with shuttle loomed denim came from the need to have something that looked good with their huge sneaker collection. Not all, but many of these kids started out as sneaker heads, and as they grew up their interests varied from kicks to jeans to everything else. This is what happens when OCD meets fashion.

Selvage for days

Despite it’s Flash limitation, this really is creative web design at it’s best. Be sure to check it out.

(found via Henry Wong’s Denim News blog)

Good news for folks in SF, Ritual Roasters is the first coffee shop to start selling my denim coffee cozies. You can buy one for just $10 from the RR on Valencia St.

My first published illustration was a cartoon-interview I did with the comic book legend Harvey Pekar. The interview was done for the alt-weekly Pulse of the Twin Cities in 2004. Click here for the large version. I wrote and penciled this strip and the amazing Sean Tenhoff inked it for me. I still dream of doing more sequential art-interviews, but the editor of PTC saw this as a one time thing. I did take a segment of an interview I did with Henry Rollins, however, and turned it into a comic as part of my short lived Rad Hair Day web series.

I’ve been tailoring for Self Edge Denim for the last few years, but as I start my new career as a game designer I decided it was time to move on from the jeans biz. Working for Kiya has been awesome and I loved the freedom that my tailoring schedule allowed me, so it’s definitely going to be something I’ll miss doing. We estimate that I’ve hemmed around 2,000 jeans for Self Edge.

Moving the machine out of the house today was a pretty emotional time for me. The machine represented an employment safety net. Some months I’d make some decent cash making music or art, other months I’d have a couple big yo-yo gigs, but the tailoring work was always something steady that I knew I could fall back on if nothing else came through that month.

While it was a fun job, it was also pretty stressful, especially as my new job as a game designer has been taking up more and more of my time. For a while I felt like I couldn’t do any relaxing activities like watching movies or going out because I should’ve been working on denim. There was also the stress of working with high end jeans, one mistake could cost me a weeks worth of work. Stakes were high, as they say.

Now the machine is comfortably sitting in Julian’s (the new tailor) studio with an army of other industrial machines. My room feels so much bigger and it feels like a big chunk of my life has been uncluttered. This is the first weekend in a long time where I felt like I could just sit back and watch the day go by… oh wait a minute, my art for RoboGames is due in 24 hours and I haven’t started watercoloring it yet… and I need to right a few more songs before I hit the studio again… and I need to make sure I have everything for my trip to London in two weeks!!!

Yeah, I’ll get to all of that… right after I finish this mojito.

Art Supply Wrap $18

Denim laptop sleeve $18

Robots Don’t Know Twitter $5

Selvage Coffee Cozy $11

Blue Bolts $25

Blue Denim Coffee Cozy $8

Black Denim Coffee Cozy $8

Don’t forget about my album, Me Geek Pretty One Day and all the other stuff on my shop. Also note, I might not be ordering Bolt‘s anymore, so this may be your last chance to procure one. On wednesday morning, I will be clising my shop for about 3 weeks while I travel.

Last week I made a laptop sleeve for my fancy 15″ MacBook Pro. Based on the responses I received, I decided to make a few more and put them on my shop. These laptop sleeves are made from heavy selvage denim (about 14 ounces) and have a chain stitched cuff. They should fit any computators that are 21 inches (or smaller) around the width. I made them extra long so you can simply fold over the extra material before putting the laptop in our bag. This prevents contents of your bag from sliding in.