Years would pass and throughout this time, Daniel and Glenn had fostered their friendship every so often toying with the idea of eventually doing something together, something beyond just helping with patterns and alterations at Brooklyn Tailors. Something involving jeans. When any of their ambitions would ever even come to fruition was a mystery. Heading the Lot No. 1 program wasn’t an easy thing to leave, either.<\/p>\n
If you don’t know, 501 is a big number for Levi’s. It’s the model number for their most popular jean, the jean that changed the world. They even celebrate ‘501 Day’ (even though it doesn’t occur on 5\/1). Though each team member at Lot No. 1 works with their customers one on one, it just so happened to be Glenn who would craft the SoHo store’s coveted 501st jean. The momentous occasion was met with its own celebration including a replica of the milestone jean made in its commemoration. Fittingly, with one milestone came another and Glenn asked himself, “What else there is to do now?”<\/p>\n
Glenn’s parting gift from Levi’s, a custom denim hat chainstitched with the dates of his tenure. He left Levi’s on May 18, 2019.<\/p><\/div>\n
Glenn left Levi’s shortly after and, along with Daniel and Brenna Lewis (co-owner of Brooklyn Tailors, and Daniel’s wife), they launched Glenn’s Denim. With Daniel behind the designs, Brenna behind the books, and Glenn behind the bespoke, it’s an exciting brand with the chops to back it up. On top of being one of the coolest looking 60-somethings around, Glenn’s line is as top-notch as you’d expect for a pedigree like his. As I was surveying the jeans, I saw a lot to love. It seemed like I had a comment for every other detail I came across. The time he’s put in in the industry really shows, and not just in the craftsmanship, but also the references. If you look closely, you’ll find details from the various brands he’s worked with over the years, from his days back in Trinidad working at a factory that made Maverick jeans, to his time at Levi’s, and even his career as a tailor.<\/p>\n
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Beyond construction, Glenn’s Denim also takes after influences from the 70s and 80s, Glenn’s formative years. The burgeoning radical art scene, the emergence of punk and hip-hop\u2014it was all happening in New York during this period and it was all brought together through blue jeans. As Glenn says on the Glenn’s Denim website, “I was interested in these tough, functional clothes from the start, especially when I realized that so many of my favorite characters\u2014cowboys, bikers, and musicians from all the American films I was watching\u2014wore these sorts of clothes as well.”<\/p>\n
The ready-to-wear collection is made in New York’s Garment District and consists of the classics: five-pocket jeans, work pants, trucker jackets, and chore coats. The selvedge denim is made custom for them, but not from a Japanese denim mill. They’re all woven in America and from a new denim mill, which is another story altogether. But if off-the-rack doesn’t interest you so much and you want the full Glenn experience, you can go the custom route and get a one-of-a-kind, made-to-order piece crafted by the master himself.<\/p>\n
There’s no dearth of denim startups these days, blurring together to form a blue blob of similarly weak backstories; college grads who recently discovered raw denim and tried to jump on the raw denim wave, mostly through branding and marketing rather than skill. But Glenn was there before it was ‘a thing’. He was there when most jeans were raw by default. He’s been making jeans longer than most small-batch jean companies have been around. While we’re not short on young denim brands whose greatest forte is marketing, we are woefully short on masters of the craft.<\/p>\n
As we wrapped up our conversation at Glenn’s studio, Daniel had this to say:<\/p>\n
“You’ve gotta have the branding and the presentation. But you have to, first and foremost, back it up with substance…With Brooklyn Tailors, we’ve done so much work in Japan and my friends and I really admire this Japanese idea of dedication to your craft. You don’t get to be the frontman, you don’t get to take center stage until you’re so advanced in your craft that you’re a master. I love that idea. Our generation really loves that idea and I think Glenn really represents that…He got to that point.”<\/p>\n
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To learn more about the brand and to see their newly launched collection, visit the Glenn’s Denim website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 62 years old, Glenn Liburd has finally mastered his craft of making jeans. He wouldn’t ever admit that he’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":140057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[627],"tags":[934,5365,21776,4947,29979,21775,765,5113,106],"acf":{"published_feed_date":"2019-07-17 00:00:55"},"yoast_head":"\n
Glenn's Denim: A New Denim Brand Over 30 Years in the Making<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n