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In the same way that cotton needs rich soil to grow, Japan had the right environment to ‘grow' selvedge denim. DENIME’s founder and author of ‘Jeans of Japan’, Mr. Yoshiyuki Hayashi spoke of his denim as such: “We spun our yarn at Kurabo mills, which was then sent to Hiroshima and Fukuyama, home of indigo dying, and had our yarn dyed at Sakamoto denim to the perfect shade of indigo. We hardened the yarn as well, starching it the same as Levi’s 501 yarns before weaving them together.” With this they fabricated their first denim, densely packed, hefty, and with a rough hand. It was unmistakably difficult at the time, with many trials and errors along the way along with doubt about moving in the opposite direction of the denim industry at large. According to Warehouse, DENIME was not trying to make one-to-one reproductions of ‘vintage’ denim. They were aiming for a classic look, with the denim’s character revealing itself the more it was worn. Ultimately, it resulted in jeans conceptually the same as the golden standard of the Levi’s 501. At the risk of being misunderstood, DENIME’s denim perhaps surpassed ‘vintage’ denim. Just five, maybe ten years before the production of selvedge denim stopped, the pinnacle of denim, the Levi’s 501 ‘66 model, was still being produced. Japanese people, in their drive for continuous improvement, wanted to build upon that era of American denim. Unraveling the recipe to DENIME’s jeans, there were minute details to the fabric that weren’t present in normal ‘vintage’ denim.