Naked and Famous Denim
Posted: November 19th, 2008 | Author: Yale | Filed under: Designers | Comments Off26 year old Brandon Svarc is both the founder and designer of Naked & Famous Denim. Based in Montreal, Canada, Naked & Famous Denim prides themselves on providing “striped-down luxury goods for reasonable prices”. With distribution in Canada, USA, and Europe, Svarc has plans to tackle the European markets next. With just released Selvedge denim baseball gloves that hit the shelves of Barneys this week, Svarc plans to push the boundaries by producing reticulated python skin belts and bullet-proof messenger bags. With the first ever to produce silk infused denim – check out my 1-on-1 with Brandon Svarc below…..
What differentiates Naked and Famous Denim from the plethora of denim brands currently in market?
Naked & Famous Denim is doing something that no other luxury brand has ever done before! We are the first luxury brand to actually be concerned with providing value to our consumers. Value is usually a taboo word in the luxury segment, most think Walmart when they hear the word. But we don’t care, we are fed up with over-priced undervalued brands, and are here to unmask the bullshit of the “premium denim” industry. We do this by creating a far superior product using expensive and rare Japanese fabrics, but we keep everything raw and simple so we can sell our jeans at reasonable prices.
Every other brand competes based on design, trends, or who has more celebrities wearing their products. N&F is the first and only “Luxury Value” brand.
What is the meaning behind Naked and Famous? What does it mean to you?
The name Naked & Famous is satire. Its meant to make fun of overpriced “Hollywood” and “Glamour” brands, as well as making fun of our celebrity obsessed society.
Tell us a little bit about your silk denim, as well as the recent addition of your cashmere denim products. How did you conceptualize this idea?
We love rare and unique denim fabric. The silk denim is a fascinating fabric containing 67% cotton, 30% silk and 3% elastane. The silk lends a smooth hand to the fabric as well as providing more strength. I especially love this denim and we are the only ones in the world with this particular blend.
The cashmere denim is pretty awesome too. It contains 8% cashmere and becomes “pyjama soft” after one wash. Its a stark contrast to some of our stiff 15oz Japanese selvedge denim styles. The cashmere denim style is also more elusive and is available only at one shop in the US which is Ron Herman (in Fred Segal on Melrose Ave.) in LA.
Based out of Montreal, what are your views on the fashion scene in Canada? How do you think it differentiates from New York or LA?
The fashion scene in Canada is quite different than that of NY and LA. The fashion scene in LA is obviously celebrity obsessed. I’m so glad we are based in Canada and not anywhere near LA. New York’s scene is far more up my alley, the people there are more concerned with finding items that are rare and special rather than shiny and superficial. Although, LA is so massive and diverse that there is a strong anti-celeb culture that I love as well. San Francisco, which is of course not too far from LA is another world completely… lots of people there are not fooled by celebrity endorsements.
