Amy Leverton Adds Her Flare To Kingpin’s New York
Amy Leverton is very tired, but you wouldn’t know it talking to her. She just spent the last few weeks on the move; traveling from Italian denim mills to Amsterdam and now New York City where she’s hosting Kingpins “In the Know” trend forecast. And it is no wonder she was picked for the job. Not only does Amy have an expert vision of the upcoming S/S ’18 trends, she adds her flare to the tradeshow. Amy is buoyant and humorous, running around mills’ booths chatting with industry insiders and making last minute connections with foreign denim devotees.
For someone who’s been working non-stop for weeks, she certainly has a lot of energy. “I could have slept last night but I think I was too hyper to fall sleep. Maybe I’m jetlagged.”
Amy isn’t just known in the industry for her trend predictions. She is also a jean journalist. After the success of her first book Denim Dudes, which came out in 2015 and focuses on the stories and style of men who work in denim, Amy has been hard at work on the sequel Denim Dudettes. This time with Dudettes, Amy points the spotlight on women.
“Dudettes is looking stronger than dudes,” she said. “Girls are bringing it. I think with Dudes it was my first book so some people were like ‘ehhh,’ and didn’t think it was going to be any good. But now with Dudettes, everyone knows what’s going on.”
Like the first book, Leverton is interviewing various jean makers, designers, aficionados and photographing them in their best denim digs.
“I’m really really excited about the photos. Some of the shoots came back and I was squealing! I had goosebumps looking at them.”
But now the tables are turned on Amy. Carved In Blue found a moment during Amy’s hectic trade show schedule (during lunch) to sit down with her and ask a few questions about her upcoming book and the denim industry. Now the interviewer becomes the interviewee…
Carved In Blue: What type of things always come up when you interview people about denim?
Amy: A lot of people talked about feeling like themselves and comfortable. A lot of people talk about nostalgia. Whenever I am asked about my favorite pair of jeans I always say it’s this pair from my brother, who probably got them from a neighbor. And they’re kid jeans! There’s pictures of me when I was 16 or 17 wearing them and they’re still loose because I was a tiny, skinny thing. Now they’re tight, it’s like a crop, pin-up look but the pockets are still small, so it looks kind of weird. But I love it because its nostalgic, it has so many memories.
Carved In Blue: What have you been disappointed by in the denim industry?
Amy: This is the worst industry for the environment which I’m super conflicted about. And as a trend forecaster I’m basically telling people to make more. In my trend presentation, I’m talking about brands that recycle fabrics or use the ends of rolls to reduce waste, but that’s not going to solve everything. So essentially, we should not be making anything new really. Sometimes I think I shouldn’t do what I do at all and instead ‘Stop! Everyone stop everything! No more seasons! No one produce anymore!’
So, part of me really struggles with that. But another part of me thinks ‘well we’re in this industry, we should stay in it and talk about the ways that we can help’ because if all the decent people who cared about the environment left, there would be a billion people who didn’t care in the industry.
Carved In Blue: Do synthetic materials in jeans take away from the core essence of denim?
Amy: I think there will always be space for five-pocket rugged style jeans but there will be increasing space for the new alternative fibers, like TENCEL®. At the end of the day, water is going to become a bigger and bigger problem and these alternative fibers help to reduce consumption. A lot of the new fiber mixes out there are mixed with cotton and maintain that rugged appearance with added softness. Which is super cool.
Carved In Blue: One piece of advice you would give to someone following in your footsteps?
Amy: Easy! Work twice as hard as everyone else.
I had a full-time job that was more than full time hours. Sometimes it was 12 hours a day, and I was doing a book on the side, like a mad person! I would get home at 9pm, do ten minutes of exercise, eat something and then work on my book.
But I never worked through the night. I work hard but it’s never uncomfortable. Well sometimes its uncomfortable, like right now. But it’s fine! I’ll sleep next week and it will be great.
Quick-fire Questions
Carved In Blue: Here’s a hypothetical question. There’s a new law that says you can never buy another pair of jeans but you can keep three pairs that you own for the rest of your life. What three pairs would you keep?
Amy: Well the first one would be my brother’s jeans with the tiny pockets.
For two, every woman needs a pair of jeans that makes them feel great, and makes their butt look good, etcetera. So, I have a pair of jeans that I bought from a thrift store in Tokyo maybe six or seven years ago. It’s a really poor open end stretch denim from the 80’s so it’s not super rare. But every person who sees me wearing them tells me they think they’re amazing. They it makes my butt look good, it nips me in all the right places and everyone always comments on them.
For my third pair, it’s a young designer called Evan Kinori from San Francisco. They’re unisex, it’s a 2 x 1 weave, a really beautiful fabric and it’s kind of a military pant shape. It’s a super comfortable linen blend and it’s kind of loose. I roll it up so that will be my summer jean.
Carved In Blue: What does “carved in blue” mean to you?
Amy: I was setting up yesterday and I passed [Carved in Blue’s] stand and I thought that’s a very nice phrase. Everyone wears a pair of jeans in their own way so they’re carving their own personality or their own life out of denim. You take a stick and whittle it. To me that’s what great about a pair of jeans, you start with a blank canvas. I think that’s what it means.