Imagine if the railroads of America were built wearing JNCO jeans, cowboys rode their ranches in Guess or entire mining towns rocked Iceberg and GAP to protect them underground… In this ‘alternative archives’ story, we flipped the eras of America’s near-nostalgia with its historical workwear roots to create a sudo-dust-bowl capsule of alternative American jeanswear.
We worked with the team at Bossa, a leading denim mill from Turkey, using their heritage fabrics and re-imagined them as iconic 80’s-00’s jeanswear pieces, showcasing destroyed laundries that conjure the era that built America. Original samples were made by the guys at All Denims in Turkey and vintage pieces were re-worked by the wonderful Francisco in Gardena, LA.
We tapped our good friend and Dudes/ Dudettes photographer, Ryan Lopez and headed out to the old mining town of Calico in California to shoot. We climbed up rocky hills to find abandoned mine shafts, drove Ryan’s Sports Utility Vehicle down roads it technically wasn’t capable of driving and ventured deep inside tunnels that smelt pretty bad.
But the photos were worth it! Thank you to everyone who took part or helped out, including Piero Turk, Shannon Reddy, Keene Kopper, Troy Strebe, Francisco, All Denims, Tommy Dorr of Mothfood, The Bearded Beagle vintage and all the team at Bossa.
Trend forecaster, denim designer, industry journalist and author of Denim Dudes.