DENIM DAYS: What 3×1 Has Been up to Lately
If Scott Morrison, president and founder of 3×1 denim, has anything to do with it, the denim industry is going to keep its magic.
While the sector is booming, going mass has meant a little loss of culture from the category, that love for denim that manifests among true bluebloods. But Morrison and 3×1 still have that love.
The label has become a cult favorite and doing denim drops is one way it’s kept up the excitement—both for the brand and its customers—as 3×1 releases new limited-edition styles each month.
Ahead of Denim Days, where 3×1 will be later this week selling TENCEL™ Denim in women’s jeans, Carved in Blue caught up with Scott to get the inside scoop on what to expect from the brand.
Carved in Blue: Can you tell us a little about what you’re working on now?
Scott: The way 3×1 is set up, with the atelier, our e-commerce business and the wholesale business, we’re constantly in the middle of a half dozen projects. We’re always experimenting with new fabrics, new D2C concepts and putting the finishing touches on one or two seasons simultaneously. It always feels a bit frantic, but I think that’s par for the course these days. This week we started receiving the first of our new limited-edition men’s styles, which are released each month in-store and online at 3x1denim.com. We were also in the midst of finalizing the SS19 collection and an amazing new collaboration with one of our favorite New York designers, and of course we’re continuing to push the envelope by introducing new silhouettes and washes, utilizing the best denims we can find in that quest for developing perfect fitting jeans.
Carved in Blue: How does sustainability factor into what you’re working on?
Scott: I look at sustainability as an ever-present, ongoing conversation within our company. We’re constantly talking about it, trying to incorporate elements when and wherever we can. We are working with suppliers and factories to push them to embrace change, and in many cases, we’re making the commitment to use materials and processes that are more expensive, but necessary for making sustainability work in a commercial sense. Everything is considered.
Carved in Blue: What’s missing from denim today?
Scott: It’s funny, there’s not a lot product-wise that’s missing from denim today. From top to bottom, brands have denim pretty well covered as a category. But I think the thing I miss most is the culture. Being in the denim industry used to mean that you loved denim, indigo, the smell of a laundry, etc. You had to be committed to learning, to developing a very specific set of skills. It was a pretty niche group, and it took time to develop skill. Those skills were distinctly different than what you’d need to be in the “fashion” industry. That being said, I can’t help but feel that the distinction is gone these days. Denim is just a thing everyone needs in their store, every brand does it, and candidly, most everyone makes a decent fit. You don’t really have to understand fabric, or create sourcing relationships like the old days, and fabrics have reached a point where they’re so forgiving, you don’t really have to understand how to put it all together (wash, fabric, fit, etc.). Mills sell everyone, low and high, the same products. So a bit of the magic is gone, a bit of the culture. You can find it if you’re willing to look, but it’s just not as evident as it used to be. With any luck, Denim Days can help change that.
Carved in Blue: What do you think Denim Days means for the industry?
Scott: I think Denim Days has the chance to be incredibly important for the American denim industry. It’s still in its infancy over here, but it’s done some incredible things for the city of Amsterdam, and I think we’ve got an opportunity to capture the imagination of New Yorkers and denim lovers alike and tap into something special.
Carved in Blue: What’s next for 3×1?
Scott: We’re going to continue to focus on growing our wholesale business, expanding our retail footprint, and finding new ways to engage our customer while continuing to focus on quality. We are a brand committed to making the greatest jeans in the world, one pair at a time, made here, in the USA.
Carved in Blue: A little about you now—when did you know you were a blueblood?
Scott: It was a roundabout journey, but somewhere around the time I took my first trip to Japan…1997 or 1998 I think. It changed my outlook on everything. I fell in love.
Carved in Blue: What was your first pair of jeans (that you remember)?
Scott: One of my first denim experiences was my mom taking me to pick out a pair of jeans. I remember going to a place near where I lived in Southern California. It was called Miller’s Outpost, and they had hundreds if not thousands of jeans in stock. I remember picking out a pair of Levis, taking them home and my mom sitting me down in the bathtub so that they would “shrink to fit.”
Buy your tickets now for Denim Days here.