Matthew Oliver Wilson on Selvedge, Storytelling and Sustainability
Consumers today crave more information about the products they buy and the brands behind them. As an influencer in the denim space, Matthew Oliver Wilson is working with companies to feed the appetite for more stories, connection and transparency.
Matt’s love affair with raw denim began by chance in a clothing store, and has since blossomed into a career that includes blogging and consulting work. Matt runs the men’s style journal Rope Dye, which covers all things denim and indigo. He also co-founded creative service agency CeeAreDee, which focuses on areas including strategy, branding, storytelling, product development and sales.
Carved in Blue caught up with Matt to discuss why heritage denim needs to evolve, how consumer education can impact sustainability and why he enjoys working with Soorty.
Carved in Blue: Tell us about yourself. How did you start in the denim industry?
Matt: I am originally from Scotland but live in Berlin, Germany.
My journey into the denim industry is a bit of a winding path, to be honest, but it all started with a lucky find in a local TK Maxx when I found my first piece of raw denim, an Evisu jacket. I was just filing through the rails as you do when you are in TK Maxx. I knew the Evisu brand from back in the day and to be honest, had a pretty negative association with it. In Scotland, it was a brand worn by the NEDs (Non-Educated Delinquents) and all of the history and cultural significance didn’t make it as far as Edinburgh in 1999. But as soon as I put my hands on it, I could feel there was something different about the material. It wasn’t denim as I had experienced it before. The crispness, the weight, the deep indigo tone; it was just something so different.
Compared to what I was used to paying for clothing, it was quite expensive at 80 euros. [He laughs.] Things have changed somewhat. I hemmed and hawed a long time but eventually, I thought, why not, and treated myself. The hangtags had a load of marketing material and blurb about raw denim and selvedge denim. I read this and was hooked. I learned everything I could about it and was drawn permanently into the world of denim.
From there I started with Denimhunters, the denim blog, becoming a partner after a year or so. Alongside my work as the creative director and brand curator for Denimhunters, I began as a representative for the Selvedge Run tradeshow in Berlin. This opened me up to a world of brands that shared the same core value as a good denim brand but were not necessarily all about denim. I was then drawn into a world of quality menswear.
From there my career evolved to include a number of clients I worked with on a freelance basis. I would work on creating and crafting brand narrative, positioning and alignment. In 2018, in another natural evolution, I partnered with my longtime friend and longtime collaborator Daniel Werner when he left the KaDeWe group to also pursue a freelance career. The creative service agency CeeAreDee was born.
Carved in Blue: What are the principles of your business?
Matt: We work with brands, companies, organizations or institutions that share the same core values as both myself and Daniel: brands with ethics, sustainability and narrative at their core.
Carved in Blue: What are some of your current projects?
Matt: Things are rather up in the air in the industry as a whole at the moment, so our current projects are rather in flux. Currently, we work with Premium Group, the tradeshow organizers in Berlin. We curate a space within their Seek tradeshow. This is a collection of brands that represent our core values as both individuals and as a business.
We also consult with a number of brands on their collection, direction, positioning, sales and communication within the DACH [Germany, Austria and Switzerland] market. Looking to the future, we are working towards bringing brands from Japan and other Asian countries over to Europe, working with them to prepare them for the specifics of selling in the Western markets.
We are also working on a super interesting project called Good Brand Guru. The goal with this organization is to bring professionals within the fashion industry who are dedicated to embedding more good together with sustainability experts.
Alongside the business to business, we also see that the lines between B2B and B2C are blurring, so we run the consumer-facing blog CeeAreDee and are building a YouTube channel with a focus on quality denim and other crafted goods.
Carved in Blue: What inspires you? How has this changed in the current times?
Matt: As corny as it sounds—and I do know it sounds super corny—I am inspired by all the people and their stories behind their brands and stores. There is just so much depth to explore there. And this is why we love doing what we do. Working with these people, building relationships and helping out where and when we can to help them tell their stories and get in front of the right audience.
Then there is the other side of the coin, seeing the consumer reaction to learning about a brand, learning about a garment or product and building a relationship with an item. This always gets me super excited and keeps driving me forward.
Carved in Blue: What is your take on sustainability? What is most critical for the denim industry today?
Matt: Quite simply, sustainability is the most important conversation going on in the fashion industry today.
In terms of denim, as an industry, it is critical that we are open and transparent; that we give the consumer the tools to educate themselves and also a choice. As I mentioned above, the lines between the traditional B2B and B2C structures are becoming blurred. Like never before, the fashion industry faces an educated, motivated, vocal and demanding consumer.
There is an expectation that both brands and their suppliers are held accountable for what they produce and how they produce. It’s a rather “chicken and the egg” situation. In less than a decade, we have seen the development of a democratic platform, or platforms where consumer expectations can be voiced and a stage on which brands can be held accountable.
Consumers can and do educate themselves through these platforms with value alignments and lifestyle alignments becoming one and the same. It drives change, and the industry needs to respond in kind. And in my experience, it has, and it does. We just need to tell more of that story.
Carved in Blue: How does men’s denim evolve its heritage and technology?
Matt: In men’s denim, especially when you stray into the heritage realm of men’s denim, there is too much focus on what was and the “way things should be.” Denim has been with us for so long and it has evolved and changed with the times as anything must. The role technology must play in both present and the future of denim is essential. We need to let go of a lot of the old ways and take an active interest in what technology can do in the world of denim. That can be anything from new ways of growing and sourcing the cotton to the spinning and dyeing of the fibers to alternative fibers that can be mixed with cotton, to new washing and finishing technologies. There are so many new and fascinating developments in the world of denim production. Stating that it has to be one way because of tradition or heritage cuts us off from too many possibilities to truly develop denim to its fullest potential.
Carved in Blue: Why have you been working on projects with Soorty?
Matt: I was asked to take part in a panel discussion for Kingpins earlier in the year. I knew most of the participants quite well through my years in the industry. However, it was the first time I had met Eda Dikmen from Soorty. I was fascinated by everything she had to tell us about the leaps forward in sustainability and technology that was going on in the denim industry. After the panel discussion, I reached out to her to learn more about these topics. I believe it is essential to have this information available to the consumer and Eda was so open and knowledgeable about each and every aspect of the Soorty supply and production chain.
Carved in Blue: After your interview with Soorty, what were your takeaways when it comes to denim, technology, ethics and responsibility in production with scale?
Matt: All of the particulars of the sustainable technologies that Soorty are developing are fascinating, certainly. What really stuck with me, however, and what I keep coming back to is the dedication to making denim production cleaner, more ethical and more sustainable. And also the honesty and openness about the pure practicality driving these developments.
Like it or not, large-scale denim production is a reality; it just is that way. So finding ways and means in which this industry can work in a more sustainable way is only going to be a positive thing. When you combine this with the scale that Soorty operates on and its vertical structure, the results of their investments into ethical production and sustainable measures can filter down through the company as a whole, making a large-scale positive impact. Positive changes made at one level can be directly felt at another. Developments can be tracked and tested throughout the production chain and adjusted accordingly.
There is a tendency to demonize large-scale production of anything, especially in the garment industry. However, with companies such as Soorty, we see another side to this. Their size is their strength, and with that strength comes the possibility to really invest, develop and drive change for the good in the garment industry.
Carved in Blue: What does Carved in Blue mean to you?
Matt: That is an expansive question. I think overall, it must be just that: the overall permanence and permeation of denim throughout our history and cultural narrative.