Endrime’s Mohsin Sajid and Sadia Rafique on Making Denim Come Alive
Mohsin Sajid and Sadia Rafique, husband and wife team, offer a service to the denim community which is greater than the sum of the parts. Whether it’s designing garments, creating logos, engineering samples, developing look-books or directing video shoots, the ENDRIME® creative directors produces full design packages for fashion companies and denim mills—small and large.
Mohsin, a university lecturer since 2005, is also a dedicated mentor to the next generation of denim heads, and has ambitions to become a professor. In addition to teaching classes at the London College of Fashion, Westminster University, Royal College of Art, Blackhorse Lane Ateliers and through his own Denim History educational platform, Mohsin is also helping Ravensbourne University develop a standalone Masters / PhD denim course in the near future.
Carved in Blue caught up with the creative duo to talk sustainability, students and the hidden secrets behind every garment.
Carved in Blue: What do you love most about designing with raw denim?
Mohsin: It’s always more fun designing a garment with a raw or rigid denim as the starting point. You can enhance the garment by adding features that, with time, will enhance the garment as it starts to lose its indigo. From using natural vegetable dyed leather that will discolor with sunlight and skew with time, to a rope that’s been inserted into our belt loops that will cause the belt loop to wear away in a certain way. Or having a garment come alive by adding extra fabric behind the pockets. Not only does this give the pocket more strength and enforcement, but it is design purposely to shrink a more than the overall garment, which then starts to do magical things, from puckering and distorting with time. This in turn encourages wrinkles in the desired place, with sundries and metal wear that will discolor and tarnish with age. It’s fun adding details that only come alive after a few months of wear.
Sadia: I love raw garments, because they are the realization of an idea. They haven’t been worn before, washed or treated. They have directly come from Mohsin’s headspace, and designed with all his knowledge and passion. What I think is extraordinary is that this garment will look beautiful and structured in it’s raw state but once it’s been worn, the wear patterns begin to emerge and this once structured garment transforms and relaxes down into a personalized garment for that one person who wore it.
Carved in Blue: What does it mean to participate in Sustainable Denim Wardrobe 2019 collaboration?
Mohsin: We feel very honored to be in a position to design a sustainable collection. Designing collections like this, inspires many design teams and others to do better. This collection was designed around using the most sustainable TENCELTM Lyocell denim across eight different denim mills combined with the latest washing techniques developed by the world-renowned team at Jeanologia. It’s been a groundbreaking project that all started in-house in our Endrime Studio in the UK.
Sadia: I enjoyed art directing and designing all the branding for the project, from the collaborative heritage logo, to the 1880s inspired tug of war tree graphic illustration, looking at the early days of animation from the 1930s, origami press release, all the bespoke buttons and rivets, heritage inspired woven labels. It was great directing the video films and hi-res photography in order to capture the essence of the whole project. While this was a heritage garment project about the Sustainable Denim Wardrobe, I got to showcase what I do in the process, which was the visual story telling side of this collection, so it’s been a real privilege. This project probably brought out the best of our skills.
Carved in Blue: What is your favorite style in the collection?
Mohsin: The Chore Jacket has become one of my favorite styles in the collection, mainly because the wash Jeanologia produced is, frankly, astonishing. It was based on a Depression-era railroad jacket fit, with period-correct ecru stitching, added extra-strength pocketing reinforcement on the hip pockets, clean finished run, and felled triple-needle chain-stitch seams construction throughout. It has a branded Carved in Blue collaboration leather patch, period-correct union-made ring button for center front with circle eyelet embroidery, branded Carved in Blue buttons for cuffs and—to top it all off—period-correct mis-stitching on all pockets.
But the Overall garment comes in close second, as we managed to laser all the collaborators’ logos on the interlacing suspender branded straps.
Sadia: It has to be the Ladies Workwear Pant with a side zipper made with TENCELÔ Denim from Orta. I like both the raw and the washed down version, which came out really well. I love the fit, the color levels and the amazing detail in the repair work from the Jeanologia team, originating from a lovely piece from our archives.
Carved in Blue: How important is denim industry sustainability to you?
Mohsin: Having designed for denim brands, denim mills, ENDRIME® and 74MMA consultancy, it’s interesting seeing how sustainability plays a part in all aspects. For most denim brands, sustainability is just, unfortunately, marketing driven, and most denim mills and producers only see the importance of sustainability if it brings in more monetary value, which is quite sad. Greed from denim mills and sales-driven brands are very much distorting everything.
For me, personally, sustainability has brought a new lease of life in the denim industry, in the last five years especially. The goal is to produce a collection that is easy to produce, make and wash, with full sustainable branding, trims and packaging. It’s a dream that is achievable right now, but commercially it’s not there yet, and it will take denim mill owners and brands to make sure only these options are being considered, even if it means that most may be more expensive at the beginning. It’s becoming the new base standard to reach, and we are excited to be a part of it.
Sadia: It’s incredibly important; when there are options available to us to produce denim in an environmentally responsible way, why do it any other way? It really bothers me when mills use the term ‘sustainability’ as an attribute of their business, but when you look at their denim fabric offering there is very little or nothing sustainable at all. Besides the false advertising and using the term solely as a sales tactic, it’s those people that are using the term irresponsibly by choice. They are confusing the market and slowing down the process of finding mills that really are offering sustainably made denim, which is why projects like the Sustainable Denim Wardrobe are so important to this industry and need to continue to highlight real game changers!
Carved in Blue: What have you learned from the students in your classes?
Mohsin: In some ways, I have gained a lot of patience from teaching; each year there are always stand-out students, or a group of students who design something that can be taken straight into stores—production-ready concepts. It’s fun teaching fashion students, as they think of denim as a fabric, so often they use the material and make styles, shapes and fits that are unconventional.
For me, it’s really fun explaining a way of construction from the 1870s to the 1940s, then letting the students better it. There’s nothing more rewarding than watching an idea that blows away an entire judging panel. Never underestimate a young student; they have pure ideas and, in some cases, they haven’t yet been clouded by working in the industry.
Sadia: I observe and photograph a lot of Mohsin’s classes, and have participated in making jeans. And what I’ve learnt from other students is one the collective nature on projects such as the Kingpins Show sponsored project at Ravensbourne, watching the students come together from different disciplines to solve problems creatively is really inspiring. And I think it’s really exciting to see where their minds go. Secondly I love seeing students get really zoned in to particular details that they then transform into something personal for them. I also enjoy the freedom they have in expressing themselves through their work.
Carved in Blue: Is the future of our industry in good hands?
Mohsin: I think we are definitely heading somewhere in a better place. More denim mills and producers are starting to understand their place, to treat their workers better, pay better, [and address] CSR, better living and working conditions for their workers. But there’s still a long way to go. It’s really about making a great change and movement that is groundbreaking and more impactful.
For me, fast fashion and the last 20 years is destroying everything. Personally, the ideal future for the denim world would be banning all high street labels from using virgin cotton for all of their garments, and forcing them through EU and international governments or the UN to use recycled cotton only for anything under 50 euro ($56). This would, overnight, stop greedy companies from exploiting their workers and damaging the planet.
Every year I meet another new cotton grower or new mill. This consumption for virgin cotton has to stop somewhere. I’m not saying banning cotton altogether, but cotton has to be treated like a premium product and something we treat with respect, used on the very special items, and we should pay more for it. We all know how damaging cotton is in the countries that grow it. Entire water tables are messed up, so we should try and encourage cotton growers to grow other plants and food that will nourish the earth.
Sadia: Yes, I believe big shifts are happening; I think there is better understanding now about our impact on others, our environment and our planet as a whole. I would hope that accountability will continue to grow and help our industry get better.
Carved in Blue: What is your favorite city to visit for inspiration?
Mohsin: Tokyo has been on the top of our list for many years, mainly because of the amount of great vintage stores and denim brands in close proximity. The mixture of great food and walking everywhere [and] the public parks are amazing. I feel healthier after returning from there and refreshed. It’s one of the only places I have found something spiritual.
Sadia: Tokyo has probably had the most impact on me so far, aesthetically, creatively, friends that are there, the sakura, the art, anime and architecture and respect for nature. There are so many levels of inspiration for me there.
Carved in Blue: If you had to pick one fit to live in forever, which would it be?
Mohsin: It’s hard to narrow down one fit or era, [but] I guess it would be 1947 Levi’s 501, or the earlier Levi’s 1922 501 just as they added the belt loops. I’ve always liked this period of Levi’s history. I love the 1873 Levi’s pant, mainly for its single needle construction and no overlocked seams.
Sadia: I wish I could say a Levi’s fit but honestly I would have to say the jeans that I made on one of Mohsin’s denim making classes, because we slightly adapted the pattern to fit me perfectly. It’s honestly the most flattering fit I have ever worn. They are also raw Japanese selvedge denim, so I get to experience wearing them in myself and watching them wear down and repair over time. And I still have the pattern, so when I want another one, I can make them myself (or get Mohsin to make them for me).