The last ‘Monday Must Haves’ before Christmas shows a curated selection of goods by Tenue de Nîmes together with Miscellaneous and Red Wing Shoes Store Amsterdam. This week with the Red Wing Shoes store exclusive Beckman Moc 9030 Antique Cigar, the Edwin Holcomb Beanie Navy, a lovely set of wooden accessories (Teak 4GB USB stick, Hacoa Black Walnut iPhone Cover and the Hacoa Black Walnut Business card holder), Momotar’so Europe Label ER007-2B Tight Fit Straight jeans and the absolute must have in your library: Hollywood and the Ivy Look.
Happy Holidays!

In the past months we’ve been busy fine-tuning the Tenue de Nîmes webshop and we’re happy to say that we are almost there. Well, we ARE already there! You can shop, get inspired in the blog and enjoy our denim dictionary. But like a good pair of jeans, it gets better in time. The winter collection is becoming a really well curated selection of basics, jeans, jackets and accessories, everything you need to survive the dark days. Enjoy Amsterdam’s Finest Denim Store online >

After working on the leather patch for the new collaboration between Tenue de Nîmes and Naked & Famous, a clash between Amsterdam and Canada, I completely fell in love with the 13oz green, rope-dyed army repro denim. The mid-green color proved a particular challenge since the dye is very unstable, but the hard work has paid off, giving us a beautiful and truly inspired color. The production manager of the mill is obsessed with vintage army materials. He has a jaw-dropping collection of old WW2 army fabrics such as uniforms, tents, tarps, bags from which the color for the warp of this particular denim was chosen. The pocket lining is made from a fabric called ‘Crusader’ and is made in Montreal. It is a rip-stop twill that is usually reserved for the shell of jackets worn by firefighters and military personnel.
Every single pair is hand-numbered, signed and shipped in a custom carrier bag with denim belt-loop fastening. All made in Canada and limited to 24 pairs only available at Tenue de Nîmes.

Today I found myself wandering around in the early morning breeze and light rain on an old shipyard, specialized in creating and repairing old Botters, the authentic Dutch sailing fishing vessels. Behind the beautiful facade of the old village of Spakenburg, an almost lost world of real craftsmanship is hidden.
Last year, my friends at Lee gave all the shipwrights a pair of unwashed jeans. One year later, a few pairs haven’t survived the hard work and though conditions, but a few aged like hell. Under a thick layer of oil, tar and paint, and patched together with extra ruler pockets the denim was hardly recognizable and almost look like waxed jeans. A beautiful setting for this original workwear. Enjoy the bigger picture on our Flickr page.

Although it is starting to feel like summer here in Europe we can’t withhold ourself taking a look at the upcoming autumn and winter collections. In particular the AW collection of Lee. Inspired on the American life Lee come’s with a mix of beautiful sawtooth-, denim and chambray’s, and again a rocking version of the classic Storm- and Sherpa Rider. All in our favorite color palette of deep indigo’s, sky blue’s and washed white’s. What more do you need on an early october afternoon with the first leafs falling and the last flare of the sunshine touching the skin… Well, let’s not anticipate on that – spring just started!

Tenue de Nîmes have released its 7th Journal de Nîmes today: The North American issue. Two of the many highlights of this issue are a portrait of Cone Denim and the New Haven Math Club photo-shoot for Gant Rugger. Another must-read is an extensive piece in which Tenue de Nîmes asked influencers like Andy Spade and Alain de Botton to tell us all about their personal North American icons. And then there is our Japan correspondent Anneke Beerkens, who analyzed the Japanese passion for America and all things American in her article ‘Amekaji’ while Japan was hit by the earthquake.

Dutch denim genius MOOS released another remarkable ‘basic’ today.  His new release consists of 6 crew neck sweatshirts with a superb charcoal color dye. Made of made of US cotton and knitted by Toki-sen-i in Wakayama, Japan this hand-crafted cotton knit is a bargain.

There are always too little of these treasures available at Koen’s atelier so contact him before they are sold out. Check it our here. (Via Tenue de Nîmes)

New brands and new styles hit the online Tenue de Nîmes store the coming weeks and today we did the first photoshoot of the new year. To share a little bit already we hereby show you our buddy Mitch wearing a vintage denim apron full of selvage details from my own collection of vintage denim aprons. This rare piece of workwear dates back to the early 1900′s and is combined with a chambray western shirt by Double RL. More on Tenue de Nîmes >

Extremely proud being a partner, we present you the new Tenue de Nîmes website. The site includes a new blog (a daily update by the name of Journal de Nîmes), a web-shop with most of the products they stock in the Amsterdam based store and all the past issues of Journal de Nîmes.

Enjoy some last minute holiday shopping at Tenue de Nîmes >

Our new Journal de Nimes Nº6 -The Dutch issue- is officially launched today. Because of the Tenue de Nîmes 2 year anniversary we felt it was the right moment to show you some of the great brands and concepts from our home country, the Netherlands. In this Dutch-themed release we report on some of the most desirable retail concepts from Amsterdam as well as an interview with Denham Brand Director Ad de Hond. On top of that we searched for -and found- some of the best Dutch export brands like Jimmy Woo, Spyker Cars and the absolute king of Dutch denim: G-star. And it doesn’t end there: with the 6th Journal de Nimes featuring an Amsterdam city map, the best vintage in town at Lady Day and a special on Dutch icons, you will understand why it is such an adventure to do a normally sized issue on the country you come from.

90 years old and still can’t bust ‘m! After the Buddy Lee shop window we did at Tenue de Nîmes I kind of fell in love with this little figure. The buddies we used there where the new ones, the third rebirth of this iconic puppet. His history goes back to 1920, when Chester Reynolds, a Lee Company Union All salesman, had been handing out bite-sized promotional overalls at country fairs when the idea of creating a doll to fit them sprung in mind.

After that moment Buddy Lee changed from material (from a very fragile plastic to an unbreakable material where he got his name ‘can’t bust m’), grew a little (1 inch in 1949), worn different commercial outfits (from a Coca-Cola and Pepsi salesman, a Philips 66 station attendant to a railway man) and several Lee outfits (from the blue denim bib overalls with the striped jackets to the denim cowboy pant, shirt, bandana and hat). In 1955 Buddy Lee is the second most popular doll in the United States (you can guess who’s nr 1…) and available for only two dollars he is literally taking over the States! In that light, it is really amazing that this little doll became such a collectors item (the original buddy Lee is worth more than $1.000)
There are tons of stories about this little man, every decade got his own; Here’s just one.

“1951:  One of the worst floods in the city’s history wipes out Lee’s Kansas City Distribution Center. It ruins the entire stock of merchandise, except the Buddy Lee dolls – which float.
A helicopter news team spots ‘babies’ drowning in the streets and reports that rescue boats (Lee employees) are out attempting to save them.”

Just another historical fact proving you can’t bust Buddy Lee.

Some historical shopwindows with Buddy Lee.

An old Buddy Lee advert.

The shopwindow at Tenue de Nîmes

Our favorite Danish fashion brand Libertine-Libertine and our own Dutch denim store Tenue de Nîmes have joined hands. Taking the best of both worlds (fashion and denim) naturally meant co-creating a limited edition denim shirt based on the Libertine-Libertine design Hobo, which refers to a homeless traveler. Inspired by the Jack Kerouac masterpiece ‘On the Road’ the denim shirt symbolizes mobility and the warmth that new and unexpected experiences provide. The shirt contains numerous hidden treasures like the check-lined collar and cuffs and the subtle white Tenue de Nîmes cross embroidery on the right front of each garment. The Hobo shirt is exclusively available at Tenue de Nîmes. More pictures after the click >

Libertine-Libertine
Tenue de Nîmes