45RPM Jomon Denim

RBY45RPM Jomon

R BY 45RPM is one of the most coveted denim brand from Japan who makes the extra special Jomon jeans

Jomon Denim

45 RPM's top of the line, Jomon is the pair of jeans any serious denim aficionado must have as part of his or her collection. Perfect slim fit similar to the 47 Levi's but not quite as tight, slight taper from the knee down, nice heavy 14oz denim, well constructed for wearing to work, great texture and beautiful color with a purple hue that should fade perfectly (may be in a couple of decades, they are natural Indigo...). Jomon uses unbleached organic handpicked Zimbabwae cotton. The Jomon yarns are then hank-dyed using natural Japanese plant indigo called Aizome. Denim thread is dyed 24 times by hand, so the indigo is right through to the core. The shuttle looms are slowed down significantly in order to achieve a tactile and rough-hewn quality to the fabric. The textile comes out with an ecru weft is perfectly flawed, revealing a deeply hued and textured denim designed to grow more intimately beautiful with time. The denim is very stubborn, and unlikely to get a high contrast fade at all.

The new Jomon which 45RPM introduced in 2010 has a tapered hem and is a bit slimmer than the previous versions. The fabric is a lot smoother as well, one can't believe that it's made of 14oz denim. It is being made exclusively for 45RPM NY stores and in limited quantities as the fabric is handmade and very limited. There are two versions of Jomon, the usual Indigo dye and the other is Charcoal dye. People can order bespoke Jomons also, which comes as 2, 5, and 7 year wash. Customers are asked to wear the jeans and measurements are taken and then distressed accordingly where the wear can occur the mazimum, and yes the hardware can also be changed to Sterling Silver at an additional cost. The fit of the jeans is not altered in any way. This whole process can take at least a month because they are sent to Spotted HorseCraft in Japan who do the distressing for 45RPM.

Indigo

Charcoal

Once people have handled the Jomon denim, they know that one day they will have to buy them. There is no easy way to explain it, it just seems obvious. 45RPM has three main stores outside of Japan which carries Jomon, not all stores carry the premium line for obvious reasons. One in Paris and the other two are in New York. The sales people over there claims that people love the Jomons so much after they first buy them that they usually never buy a different model after. And sometimes buy 2 or 3 pairs of Jomons at the same time...!!

After the hot soak

General fitting of  Jomon is that of a regular, slightly slim, straight cuts with a great top block jeans that will probably never go out of fashion. 45RPM store people are very knowledgeable about what they are into and are super-nice to deal with. Another sweet part of the deal is that 45RPM do free hemming and will repair any type of jeans, for a small fee through the life of the jeans, all one has to pay is for shipping. And if your denim has evolved really well, they will most likely ask for your permission to take the pictures so that it can be made into their archive. Probably no other denim company cover their products with repairs through the life of the denim. Combined with an awesome denim, with true artisanal quality construction and customer service makes 45RPM stand out among other denim brands. 45RPM jeans may take some adjusting for one who used to fit into slim jeans, for that one can size down 1 or 2 to have the desired fitting, and will appreciate the silhouette even better.

Not the true color, but close to it with little lighter shade

Aizome dyed garments tend not to fade in the same way the Aniline or synthetic indigo items do. Ai-dyed clothing tends to fade more evenly, and the color becomes a softer hue of blue rather than the Chiaroscuro effect achievable in the indigo-dyed items. One is probably going to go marathon on the Jomons before a hotwash, just to squeeze out any contrast. The call is like, wear those jeans even harder, better, faster and stronger to get any contrast fading, if at all any... And attempting to fade any of the good natural indigo jeans in a couple of weeks or even months is a waste of time. You just gotta keep them in the rotation and love them for what they are. Consider them as an investment, life time pair of jeans. With the nearly free repairs by 45RPM stores you'll probably have them forever barring weight fluctuations, in that case it can be handed over to the near and dear ones as a preciously kept asset.

Fading is negligible even after couple of months of wear and the second wash

Megapixels are taking forever to upload and resize.. Wacky

There are two stores in New York, US; R by 45rpm Soho Store 169 Mercer St. and 45R Upper East Store 17 East 71St. The raw Jomons are States specials and available only online or at the Upper East location. One can take a look at the UE store to see the color samples of how Jomon fades.

New Jomon is priced at $864 in 45RPM store New York.

45 RPM Paris store is in the 1st Arrondissement, near Place Vendôme Rue du Marché St-Honoré, about 3-5 min away from Colette. France prices are sky high compared to US. They recently opened a new store Rue de Grenelle, supposedly dedicated to their organic collection.

In Paris, Jomons are priced at €830. Ouch..