Home (all) Welcome to DENHAM the Jeanmaker´s website. Each card reveals a story which represents one facet of Denham´s vision. Categorised by the collection, garment library, studio & stores, to press reports & the birth of the Cutter´s Council. Designed in time with no beginning nor end, through resourceful innovation and fearless experimentation. It´s a decorated blog. A tailor-made homepage. We hope to fascinate but are equally prepared to frustrate.
This is a very large 100% pure silk parachute dated 1945 from WW2. We procured a few of these from sources in both the United States and the United Kingdom in order to create the women's Chuter DGL blousson. Women were asked to forego wearing silk during the war so it could be used for parachutes. Dropping men and equipment into the field by air must have seemed an almost space-aged concept. It's a humbling thing to hear veterans like those interviewed for A Band of Brothers talk about their jumps into the unknown. The image below is a more recent one from the conflict in Afghanistan but the iconic yellow color of the chutes used for supply-drops is similar to our much older versions. And where modern parachutes are made from nylon, the world before nylon demanded they be made from silk. Envisioning the chain of activity from a living silkworm spinning the initial filaments to the moment when a full sized yello parachute canopy opens in the sky is almost more than the most imaginations could handle. Amazing.
The rationing of silk for use in parachutes during the second world war also provided the incentive for convention-destroying new fabric developments like the invention of Rayon, Viscose and other non-petroleum silk-touch biofibers. By recutting a few of these vintage parachutes into a women's blousson we've tried to give the girls back the silk they lived without at that time. -And we're still using the Rayons and Viscose blends introduced in those days to create things like high quality sleeve linings.
Before we created we collected.
But we collect not just to acquire; we collect to examine, analyze, and to learn. Decades in the making, the DENHAM GARMENT LIBRARY supplies the raw material for our research, design and development. We can’t benefit from tailoring traditions unless we understand them better, and new ideas crumble if they’re not built on a strong foundation. Each item in the library tells a story and each one represents a starting-point for our collections.
Jason Denham’s single-minded obsession with denim is the primary inspiration for the brand. His conviction that deep knowledge comes with extensive research is central to the whole studio’s design approach. The label’s own growing archive is home for an expansive collection of archetypal jean models as well as workwear, military clothing and travel gear from the last century all the way up until today.
We know our predecessors, our contemporaries and our competitors. We take inspiration from anyone and any place producing relevant ideas but we’re never content simply to reproduce someone else's approach even if that person's name has been safely lost to history. The research feeds our passion and our passion is to progress our tradition ever forward.
WORSHIP TRADITION. DESTROY CONVENTION