Berlin Fashion Week,The Flat Head and DC4 at Bread & Butter

On Tuesday July 2nd, Berlin is holding the 12th edition of the Bread & Butter trade show. The best brands from around the globe will gather to showcase their latest collections, and of course raw denim is a growing part on this exhibition.

The Flat Head, one of the most coveted Japanese brands, will be present again at the L.O.C.K. area. DC4's Daniel Cizmek will be together with The Flat Head crew answering all the questions from people interested in the brand and their products.

Masake Horiuchi (Kobayashi's right hand), Yamada Shunsuke and Takeshi Kojima (the designer of Real Japan Blues) are the team who will be at the TFH stand presenting all the current and last collection.

Yamada Shunsuke, Masake Horiuchi and Takeshi Kojima

If you don't have the luck to attend the Bread & Butter show, just drop by at the DC4 store on the 4th of July for the Iron Heart party and you will have the opportunity to meet these inspiring guys. Here are some impressions of the The Flat Head booth which was held at the Bread & Butter January 2013-show:

Pictures by Paul Travi

New Arrival: Samurai S5000BK 17oz Straight

For those who enjoy a black pair of denim next to their indigo pairs, we've got one of the very best just in store: the Samurai S5000BK Zero Denim. The jeans are made out of a selvage 17oz denim with a black dyed warp, which will actually fade just like indigo, leaving you with a beautiful grey pair. To give you an idea how these will fade (click to enlarge):

Pictures courtesy of The Hall Of Fade.

Available now in sizes 32 - 38 in the DC4 Online Store.

As with a lot of Samurai items we carry, these S5000BK's are a limited edition to honor Samurai's 15th anniversary. The leather patch, red tab and flasher have been customised and the jeans come with a Samurai denim bag and a pin-back button.

Detail of the weft

Soaking process

Soaking process

Drying outdoors

Fit-wise, these are straight with a mid rise. The denim is unsanforized, meaning it will shrink-to-fit, so keep this in mind when choosing your size. And if you won't want to go through the trouble of soaking your Samurai Jeans, we'd be happy to do so in our Soaking Room. Of course, after soaking, we'll hem them to the right length on our Union Special.

The Rob Ryan Roadshow

Easily one the best styled bands out there is The Rob Ryan Roadshow: a high energy band playing a mix of Americana, rockabilly and roadhouse rock. The band consists of Rob Ryan (vocals, guitar), Ralf Sommers (bass), Jaco (lead guitar, vocals) and Boris Israel (drums, vocals).

We are proud to be sponsoring the Berlin based band together with The Flat Head. To us, this is the ultimate combination of all the good stuff life has to offer.

On a side note: Rob Ryan and his mates were nominated for The Independent Music Awards. For an extra read and an interview, click here.

DC4 soaking room, your jeans ready to roll!

Buying unsanforized raw denim (or shrink-to-fit) always has it's complications, it's critical to buy the right size to obtain the desired fit. Even raw denim veterans sometimes have a hard time when soaking and hemming their new jeans comes to place.

For the newcomers, the wide variety of brands, types and weight of denim make things even more confusing. All kind of information is out there to be found on blogs and forums. Some of them are right, others are not. What to do?

Many denim guru's agree that soaking before wear is the best way to go - we at DC4 couldn't agree more. Naturally unsanforized denim needs to be soaked before wearing. Some of the real advantages of soaking is that it increases the fabric density and strength, removes the excess indigo and starch, corrects stitch tension and it helps to achieve that perfect fit.

It is recomendable to wear unsanforized denim with out a previous soaking? Well, just think that when you decide to go raw, the chance that your favorite jeans, bought with your hard earned money, will not fit you well anymore after the first wash is nearly 100%. The creases and fades you have worked hard on will shift out of place. Also, not washing your denim will increase the possibility of crotch blowouts and early wear of the fabric.

In Japan, it's a popular practice to pre-soak dry denim before it's being sold (so called one-washed jeans). Many specialized denim stores give the alternative to buy a pre-shrunk version of the jeans you are willing to purchase. After you have tried the pre-soaked jeans you want, they just hem it to your convenience and let you go with a perfect fitted pair, without complications. Easy!

Of course soaking your brand new pair of jeans has a certain appeal to it, but it has to be done right to get a perfect pair. To avoid the cumbersome process, DC4 created the Soaking Room. A space in store where we pre-soak your denim of choice, giving them a thoughtful attention in this important procedure. We know every single brand and model, and all this knowledge is critical for the shrinking process and of course, sizing advice.

After the jeans has being shrunk, we offer you a free hem stitching with our vintage "Black Head" Union Special 43200.

If you want to buy jeans online, just shoot us an e-mail or a message on Facebook or Tumblr, and we'll be more than happy to help you with the sizing or other questions. And of course - if you are in Berlin, pay us a visit. You might walk away with a pair of jeans that are ready to roll!

Iron Heart x DC4 Berlin Party on the 4th of July

Iron Heart, creators of some of the heaviest denim around, are coming over this summer to party with us at DC4 on the 4th of July - and you're invited. We're proud to be the longest standing European retailer carrying Iron Heart, giving this party a special little something. Haraki-san, president of Iron Heart, and several others from the team are flying over from Japan for a meet and greet.

We'll be providing the usual: beer, Japanese food, custom cars, bikes and lots of Iron Heart goods. We'd greatly appreciate it if you're coming to the party. Please make sure to fill out this form so we'll know you'll be there.