Edo Damashii is a small Thailand-based designer that sells their creations on Ebay. They are part of a growing number of fashion designers who have chosen to use Ebay as their primary storefront, going for a direct-to-customer business instead of the traditional struggle to get their clothes featured in boutiques. I’ve been watching this growing demographic for a while, ever since I bought a hand-made hat on Ebay two years ago. Since then, I’ve purchased a number of different items of clothing from Ebay designers, and now I’d like to spotlight my favorites.

Edo Damashii’s primary creation are their “Kimono Jeans” which are handmade from distressed denim and Kimono-cloth that has a wide variety of Asian-themed prints. The jeans at the right are the actual pair I purchased from Edo Damashii. The cut of the jeans is very similar to the classic Levis’ 501 jean, and at first I thought they were actually made using vintage pairs of 501’s, but when they arrived, I noticed that the rivets were all marked “Edo Damashii” and were fairly new. Therefore, I think these jeans start life as 501 copies.

The jeans have some pretty cool hand-made distressing. Three lightning-bolt-shaped holes in the front are sealed with black patches behind the holes and then stitched over with white threading. On the left leg, there is a cool silkscreen print of a dragon. Even the leather patch on the pack of the jeans is customized with Edo Damashii’s logo.

Overall, the wash of the denim leaves a bit to be desired, as it’s very regular, and I’ve never been a huge fan of the 501 cut in general as I find it a bit boxy and traditional. In some places there were loose threads, so I’d suggest Edo Damashii step up the quality a little bit. However, these jeans are unique (browse through their Ebay store and you’ll see every pair is unique!) and they only cost $29.00 plus shipping from Thailand which was actually quite reasonable. Shipping time to my NYC address was about three weeks. For the price and unique look, these jeans can’t be beat! They also have some very cool t-shirts, customized motorcycle jackets, and biker-style wallets.
More pics and details after the jump…

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These jeans just arrived in the mail from Japan, since I scored them from Ebay. the seller was telling the truth about only having worn them twice – they feel brand new! The 45 rpm Indigo’s have the heaviest denim I’ve worn before, but it’s a wonderfully soft and organic feeling material. As a result of their one wash, they are nice soft versus the stiff feeling of unwashed raw denim. Considering that these are now my most expensive pair of jeans, it’s kinda quaint to think that denim was ever considered the fabric of the American working man.

Especially given 45 rpm’s artisanal, indigo-dyed denim that draws on Japan’s own textile tradition. Cotton threads are hand-dipped 28 times in real indigo, then woven on shuttle looms purposely slowed so that they produce a more random textured twill reflecting human imperfections. From there, the denim is sewn into the Indigo line, which means it has one wash (hand-done, of course) and retails for a mere $450.

But that’s only the beginning, since 45 rpm also sells custom washes in one-year, two-year, five-year and seven-year versions (also all hand-done) between $750 and $1,500 a pair. Get ’em here.

More pics after the jump…

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After growing somewhat jaded with the sneaker and wristwatch game, last spring I turned my attention (obsession?) towards the world of fine denim. Much like my hunt for the perfect pair of kicks, my search began in the many boutiques around NYC, looking at and trying on ridiculously over-priced denim.

From there, and as well as online research, I got a sense of the top names in denim. Unlike the sneaker game, which is usually about obscure and/or super limited designs by major companies like Nike or Adidas, the denim game is more about small companies that are for the most part unknown by most people except stylists, fashionistas, and denim-heads. My future posts about denim will spotlight my favorite finds over the last year, but first I feel the need to explain why anyone would want to spend over $100 on a pair of jeans.

So, what makes “premium denim” so special? There are many fine points to consider when discussing denim, but to keep it simple, it’s all about four things: fabric, cut, finishing, and exclusivity.

Get schooled after the jump…
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