Ande Whall – New Zealand’s Finest, Quake Donations Needed!

When you hear the words “New Zealand”, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?  Alright, we won’t get into the stereotypes but 9 times out of 10, we bet it isn’t raw denim.  Thanks to Ande Whall, the independent producer and denim purist, New Zealand has officially laid its mark in the raw denim world (and who said location is everything?).

Posting up in the South Island of New Zealand, Ande Whall is truly a jack-of-all-trades kind of guy; personally taking care of everything from (breath in…) design, pattern drafting, and garment construction to artwork branding, website design, photography, and sourcing raw materials and sales.

NOTE: before going on, we have to preface with a special note and request.  We recently found out that Ande Whall was severely affected by the massive earthquake that hit Christchurch on Feb 22, 2011.  In fact, the building that his workshop is set in was hit so badly that the entire building is set to be torn down.

Thus, all Ande Whall operations will be shut down until further notice.  If you can spare $20.00, please help and make a small donation to Ande Whall – we just made our contribution this week.

Much like California-based Rising Sun & Co., the first glance of Ande Whall’s site goods will leave you with thoughts of the Wild, Wild West, but after a few clicks, your jaw will be at your ankles.  Aside from overseeing each and every aforementioned operational step, he uses only the best 13.5 Oz raw selvedge denim from Okayama, Japan that has been exposed to pure synthetic indigo during the rope dying process.

What this means for the customer is they are provided with a very dark and “crunchy” denim that produces high contrast fades (see all photos below, courtesy of Ande Whall Official Site).

When asked where he receives his inspiration from, Ande Whall replied:

Inspiration comes from old stories of denim companies making their mark in the late 19th and early 20th century. Old advertisements and stories of how things came about in the factories when garments were being made. A lot of vintage details people love today were born from those early innovative days of workwear. The big companies were battling each other to have the strongest and most useful pants on the market. Hidden back pocket rivets prevented scratches on an expensive horse saddle, a “U” shaped crotch was more comfortable to wear in the saddle, sanforized denim….”no more shrinking jeans, buy your true size”! As the ad says. There is also a host of vintage details born from a sort of rugged old sewing, it was only workwear afterall and before sewing machines really started to evolve to perform specialized individual tasks. The angled back belt loop supposedly came about by one machine operator not being able to get the bar tack through the thick layers of the seat seam and belt loop, so instead opted to off set the loop to sew through less fabric and hence save time. Could be true. The back pocket stitching style (wider at the top) that was used to avoid running over hidden back pockets rivets is still widely used today, even though most jeans don’t have the hidden rivet anymore. Having said all that I don’t subscribe to the strict reproduction brand ethos, I just take my favorite details from the past and use them on modern and more vintage style cuts. Neo vintage if you will.

Ande Whall (source: Denimology Interview)

After the denim is sourced and arrives happily at Ande Whall’s workshop, 1-2 days is needed to cut and sew.  Needless to say, the man goes above and beyond the requirements for each denim produced, applying a mixture of traditional construction techniques.  As you’ll see below, you may as well get into Where’s Waldo? mode when searching for all the little details (see below, courtesy of Ande Whall Official Site).

Details

  • Color: very dark indigo
  • Weight: 13.5 Oz
  • Fit: Raker (super slim), Grifter (slim), Miner (regular full), Cougar (regular), or Slacker (slim “slouch”)

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Details

  • Color: black
  • Weight: 13.5 Oz
  • Fit: Raker (super slim), Grifter (slim), Miner (regular full), Cougar (regular), or Slacker (slim “slouch”)

Best of luck to Ande Whall – we hope you’re on your feet again soon!  Looking forward to your return.

Additional Resources

Stay Raw!

-Nick
@heddels