New York City to host Denim Days
The three-day, indigo-saturated denim festival hosted by Amsterdam for the past three years is coming to America’s City of Dreams Sept. 29 – Oct. 1
The mystique of New York City springs from its diversity of cultures, architecture and style. Like a well-loved pair of jeans, New York is high fashion or low, worn out or sleek—understood a little differently by each person there. “Seen from the Queensboro Bridge,” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby, “is always the city seen for the first time in its first wild promise of all the mystery and beauty in the world.”
AMSTERDAM DENIM DAYS BLUEPRINT APRIL 2017
Photo credit: Team Peter Stigter
That makes New York the perfect place to host Denim Days, an offshoot of the festival in Amsterdam that has catered to denim obsessives—makers, wearers, designers, buyers, lovers and geeks—for the past three years. “The energy and inspiration we all get from the successful and influential Amsterdam Denim Days is immense,” says Amsterdam Denim Days founder Lucel van den Hoeven. “We can’t wait to launch an all-American version for style-setting, indigo-devoted New Yorkers.”
New York’s first Denim Days, initiated by House of Denim and organized by Modefabriek in collaboration with Kingpins Show, according to a press release, will take place Sept. 29 – Oct. 1 (tickets available now, to purchase follow this link), with a one-day speaker series at the Fashion Institute of Technology and a two-day shopping event at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea. It will all begin at the Metropolitan Pavilion – 125 West 18th Street – forging connections between denim insiders, designers and brands to consumers.
“If I close my eyes to imagine the best denim event in the world, it would be here in NYC, where I live, and it would all be about cool brands with booths, run by people who care and are passionate about what they do—whether it’s indigo dyeing or repairing jeans, embroidering them or selling you their cool brands,” Andrew Olah, founder of the Kingpins Show (the seminal denim supply chain show) and co-founder of New York Denim Days, told Carved in Blue.
Brands, designers and denim mills will present interactive displays and workshops as well as in-store events throughout the city, a vintage denim market, parties and panels — all geared to grant consumers access to their denim heroes and heritage brands. The events will be capped off Oct. 1 with a one-day street festival, with food, live entertainment and more. “When I was a kid, jeans were anti-establishment,” Olah says. “Now everyone wears jeans. So if everyone wears them, they need one place to go once a year to learn all about jeans—and I mean ALL about jeans—and talk to the artisans and brand people.”
Tricia Carey, Lenzing director of business development for denim, agrees that, like Amsterdam’s Denim Days, New York’s turn “is an incredible platform to show the value of TENCEL® branded lyocell fibers in denim.”
“We are pleased to be part of the exciting launch of Denim Days NYC and the opportunity to connect with the consumer who want to know more about the products they buy,” she says.
The FIT Denim Talks series offers opportunities to hear from some of the world’s denim masters, including the “godfather of denim,” Adriano Goldschmied; Diesel USA CEO Stefano Rosso; Scott Morrison, founder of 3×1, Paper Denim Cloth and Earnest Sewn; Stefan Siegel, founder and CEO of Not Just a Label; and Sanjeev Bahl, founder and owner of garment factory and “laundry of the future” Saitex.
“Denim is scattered all over New York,” Olah says. “It is scattered by consumers and their choices of what to wear, and stores are all over the map—SoHo, Greenpoint, Meatpacking etc. Denim Days wants Denim lovers and denim consumers to come together and hang out at our show for a day or two.”
NEW YORK DENIM DAYS SCHEDULE:
Sept. 29:
FIT Denim Talks (invite only)
Katie Murphy Amphitheater at FIT
227 West 27th Street
Sept 30 – Oct 1:
Denim Days Festival
Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th Street
Oct. 1:
Denim Days Street Festival
West 18th Street – between 6th Ave. and 7th Ave.
PURCHASE TICKETS:
Passes to New York Denim Days are now available HERE
To Learn More, follow the New York Denim Days festival: