Montreal is Delirious for Denim

Keeping up with a fashion blog takes some work. I get a lot of emails of companies pitching me a new line or new product in hopes of getting the word out there. But what’s really striking is the fact that I get a concentration of emails from one camp in particular: denim.

I don’t know how many denim companies are out there, but I think there are way too many. Especially in Montreal, I don’t know what it is about this city, but they’re full of denim designers. How well these small companies do is hard to say, but it’s suffice to say that I am about up to here with denim overload.

I mean I love my jeans, I read somewhere that the average shopper owns at least 5 pairs of jeans, which isn’t too far from the truth to what I own. So I’m assuming because people own so many pairs of jeans that there’s a hot market for it and a huge demand. Premium denim costs a pretty penny and I think shoppers are getting confused and lost between the difference of premium and a regular pair.

I’m no denim expert, but from what I’ve learned, premium is the kind that will last you forever. The way jeans were originally meant to be. Denim was conceived to be durable, and so farmers and laborers wore this material as they worked. Then it made its way with cowboys in the 1930s and popularized into fashion after WWII. You can read more about the history of denim on Lifestyle Monitor’s 2007 issue at Cotton Inc.

With everyone jumping the bandwagon and attaching “premium” to high priced jeans, or with the recent green movement that everyone is saying that they’re using organic cotton,  there needs to be a simple certification system issued by the top guns in using organic fabric if you ask me. Like many things in fashion, education is essential if you don’t want to be duped, but it’s becoming increasingly complex. You’d really have to be a Denim Nerd to differentiate premium and fashion jeans. Something I personally can’t be bothered with. I equate jeans as practical winter wear, if they can survive the slushy cold streets of Montreal, they’re good in my book.

Image credits: Cotton Inc