Superstitch began from a simple motivation, to recreate and revive something as good yesterday as it is today: Jeans, as they were. Why jeans? Because, ‘when well made, they will never disappoint you’. It started with an interest in denim and workwear clothing. Their inception and design were driven by function, and also the production processes and techniques that allow for manufacturing. Five pockets cut in denim fabric, with rivets and constructed by skilled hands using denim specific sewing techniques: these are the attributes of a true jean, worn by cowboys, construction workers, and farmers alike, proven to withstand the demands of manual labour and exposure to the stresses of sun, dirt and grit. And after seeing the wearer through thick and thin, the jean accumulates its own wear and scars, telling a story through its fading as unique as the wearer.
The jeans wearers who came after have always sought to borrow a little of that style of rugged beauty, derived from function. But to create the original again today has been an obsession for Superstitch, inspiring our founder to set out on the search for rare machines salvaged from defunct factories spanning the decades of the 1920s to ’70s, sometimes considered treasure, sometimes trash, by their previous owners. Then, learning by doing, those old but trusted denim specific sewing techniques were assimilated into our specialist vintage denim repair repertoire, and ultimately our design and manufacturing methodologies.
The launching of the first of the ‘LR’ product line in 2020, the LR01, represented the first of Superstitch’s important brand milestones. Made in Japan, using specially developed loomstate fabric, the model evoked the 1972 – 1974, 501 ’66s type construction: high waist, true straight leg, button fly. The LR01 is perfectly imperfect, faithfully and meticulously reproducing every known defect of the 501 ’66s type that existed in the original jeans of that period. In 2023, Superstitch re-released a 42 piece limited series of LR01s made entirely by hand using Cone Mills White Oak deadstock fabric, with all original machines, on the floor of our 13, rue Racine, Paris production shopfront.
Each Superstitch project starts with the development of the ideal fabric, whether it’s a lighter indigo and a rougher inverse side weave ’66s type fabric for the LR01 jeans, or a deeper dye, lower tension XX type fabric for the LR11 jacket. No analogue made by modern machines could fulfil the desire for the tactility, the capacity for ageing and the imperfect character of denim woven by old shuttle looms. As such, the fabrics that are developed for each Superstitch product are woven in some of the precious few mills left in the world still capable of meeting Superstitch’s uncompromising specifications - all of which are found in Japan.
The electric powered shuttle loom weaving process is something short of automatic, requiring around the clock care by expert weavers. As the shuttle is propelled across the warp, and the beater pushes the weft thread into place, the machines emit a familiar rhythmic sound. With decades of experience, a master weaver can tell by listening, the health and functioning of each individual machine. Each machine, along with its design defects and years of wear, develops their own temperament. No series of fabric woven by one machine is like any other, and the master weaver knows how to harness each of these ‘personalities’ to produce a fabric to minute criteria: the give of the weave, the roughness of the underside, the appearance of peppering of the weft and warp. Speed is not one such criteria. About 8 hours is needed to weave a single metre of denim fabric. It takes 3 metres of fabric to construct a single pair of jeans. But the attributes of shuttle loom fabric is plain to see and feel, and promises an evolution to be softer, more rich, and transforming through many shades of blue, as time goes by.
It’s easier to create something perfect rather than to reproduce desired imperfections. The thunderbolt shaped crease on the watch pocket of the ’66s type was never intended by the original manufacturer, but occurred as a result of a design change where the fabric was cut in a different direction than previous models. Similarly, the iconic turning leg of the jeans of the golden era of denim was a result of the direction in which the unsanforized denim shrank with wash. In this way, each jeans of their relative era are identified by their known defects.
Superstitch labours to recreate and incorporate these intentional defects, small almost imperceptible flaws in the product which as a whole, creates richness, beauty and character. Many of the flaws only show with time, wear and washing, but in a way that is both homogenous to all Superstitch models, and also unique to the lifestyle of each owner. It gives us great satisfaction to see an LR01 jean after two years of real life wear, exhibiting their own manifestation of the twisting leg, roped hem and a fading so close to the original ’66s type that it could be mistaken for a true vintage piece.
The search for the capability to produce denim clothing as close to the 1940 – ’70s brought Superstitch to Okayama, Japan. Here, we found factories that retained the mid-1900s denim manufacturing culture the Japanese picked up from the Americans and then cultivated to an art, as well as the like minded obsession with denim history and exacting quality. We found a fixation on detail from the smallest element of denim construction, and like us, a simple joy taken in producing something good from the first thought to the final product. For these reasons, the LR line of products is ‘Made in Japan’.
The prefix ‘LR’ is not a technical acronym or manufacturing serial number, but the combined initials of two people who had a profound influence on the development of the Superstitch mission – the grandparents of our founder, Lydie and René. Far from being involved in the clothing production industry, they were farmers from a small town in the south west of France. They instilled in our founder from an early age those values of work ethic, perseverance and the idea that ‘all things worth doing, are worth doing well’. It was Lydie who gave our founder his first sewing needle, encouraging him, when he had a tear in his jeans, to learn how to fix it by himself. Thus a spirit of learning-by-doing and mastery of profession was sparked, fundamental to how Superstitch approaches all its activities. Sadly, Lydie and René passed without being able to share in the fruits of their nurturance. In their honour, our founder incorporates their memory in all his creations, taking them along at every milestone of the Superstitch journey.
Our shared belief with our customers, that well made things should be kept for a lifetime, and beyond, has motivated a continual research and development in highly specialised denim repairs techniques, using only original vintage machines that created those denim pieces themselves in the golden era. Our repair techniques are designed in a way to restore, even the most rare collectible vintage denim as close as possible to its original condition. Due to the unique attributes of denim clothing, the nature of the fabric and its special construction, common repair techniques used for other types of clothing are not suitable.
One of the key offerings of our expert denim repair service is the hand darning technique, applied to holes and tears in denim fabric. Without the use of patching, a darning stitch is employed, where the thread is applied row after row, against the direction of the original fabric, and thread by thread, the fabric is recreated, colour matched, almost as if it is woven anew.
People often ask us why the ‘roping’ effect of the jean hems done at our rue Racine repair centre are so pronounced and three dimensional in its texture. In fact, the true ‘roping’ fade is a defect produced by a particular chain stitch hemming machine, which has become increasingly rare to find in functional condition. Even rarer are those trained to operate this machine, as it is through a specific handling by the sewer, turning and guiding the fabric with a particular give or tension, that the fabric can be primed to develop this specific fading effect.
These and many other special repair techniques are capable of addressing all types of wear and damage, even those that seem catastrophic to the product. These are part of our in-house know-how, offered at the rue Racine repair centre for any of your beloved jeans and denim clothing, the lives of which you would like to prolong for the long term.
Superstitch MFG.
13 rue racine, 75006 Paris FRANCE
Superstitch began from a simple motivation, to recreate and revive something as good yesterday as it is today: Jeans, as they were. Why jeans? Because, ‘when well made, they will never disappoint you’. It started with an interest in denim and workwear clothing. Their inception and design were driven by function, and also the production processes and techniques that allow for manufacturing. Five pockets cut in denim fabric, with rivets and constructed by skilled hands using denim specific sewing techniques: these are the attributes of a true jean, worn by cowboys, construction workers, and farmers alike, proven to withstand the demands of manual labour and exposure to the stresses of sun, dirt and grit. And after seeing the wearer through thick and thin, the jean accumulates its own wear and scars, telling a story through its fading as unique as the wearer.
The jeans wearers who came after have always sought to borrow a little of that style of rugged beauty, derived from function. But to create the original again today has been an obsession for Superstitch, inspiring our founder to set out on the search for rare machines salvaged from defunct factories spanning the decades of the 1920s to ’70s, sometimes considered treasure, sometimes trash, by their previous owners. Then, learning by doing, those old but trusted denim specific sewing techniques were assimilated into our specialist vintage denim repair repertoire, and ultimately our design and manufacturing methodologies.
The launching of the first of the ‘LR’ product line in 2020, the LR01, represented the first of Superstitch’s important brand milestones. Made in Japan, using specially developed loomstate fabric, the model evoked the 1972 – 1974, 501 ’66s type construction: high waist, true straight leg, button fly. The LR01 is perfectly imperfect, faithfully and meticulously reproducing every known defect of the 501 ’66s type that existed in the original jeans of that period. In 2023, Superstitch re-released a 42 piece limited series of LR01s made entirely by hand using Cone Mills White Oak deadstock fabric, with all original machines, on the floor of our 13, rue Racine, Paris production shopfront.
Each Superstitch project starts with the development of the ideal fabric, whether it’s a lighter indigo and a rougher inverse side weave ’66s type fabric for the LR01 jeans, or a deeper dye, lower tension XX type fabric for the LR11 jacket. No analogue made by modern machines could fulfil the desire for the tactility, the capacity for ageing and the imperfect character of denim woven by old shuttle looms. As such, the fabrics that are developed for each Superstitch product are woven in some of the precious few mills left in the world still capable of meeting Superstitch’s uncompromising specifications - all of which are found in Japan.
The electric powered shuttle loom weaving process is something short of automatic, requiring around the clock care by expert weavers. As the shuttle is propelled across the warp, and the beater pushes the weft thread into place, the machines emit a familiar rhythmic sound. With decades of experience, a master weaver can tell by listening, the health and functioning of each individual machine. Each machine, along with its design defects and years of wear, develops their own temperament. No series of fabric woven by one machine is like any other, and the master weaver knows how to harness each of these ‘personalities’ to produce a fabric to minute criteria: the give of the weave, the roughness of the underside, the appearance of peppering of the weft and warp. Speed is not one such criteria. About 8 hours is needed to weave a single metre of denim fabric. It takes 3 metres of fabric to construct a single pair of jeans. But the attributes of shuttle loom fabric is plain to see and feel, and promises an evolution to be softer, more rich, and transforming through many shades of blue, as time goes by.
It’s easier to create something perfect rather than to reproduce desired imperfections. The thunderbolt shaped crease on the watch pocket of the ’66s type was never intended by the original manufacturer, but occurred as a result of a design change where the fabric was cut in a different direction than previous models. Similarly, the iconic turning leg of the jeans of the golden era of denim was a result of the direction in which the unsanforized denim shrank with wash. In this way, each jeans of their relative era are identified by their known defects.
Superstitch labours to recreate and incorporate these intentional defects, small almost imperceptible flaws in the product which as a whole, creates richness, beauty and character. Many of the flaws only show with time, wear and washing, but in a way that is both homogenous to all Superstitch models, and also unique to the lifestyle of each owner. It gives us great satisfaction to see an LR01 jean after two years of real life wear, exhibiting their own manifestation of the twisting leg, roped hem and a fading so close to the original ’66s type that it could be mistaken for a true vintage piece.
The search for the capability to produce denim clothing as close to the 1940 – ’70s brought Superstitch to Okayama, Japan. Here, we found factories that retained the mid-1900s denim manufacturing culture the Japanese picked up from the Americans and then cultivated to an art, as well as the like minded obsession with denim history and exacting quality. We found a fixation on detail from the smallest element of denim construction, and like us, a simple joy taken in producing something good from the first thought to the final product. For these reasons, the LR line of products is ‘Made in Japan’.
The prefix ‘LR’ is not a technical acronym or manufacturing serial number, but the combined initials of two people who had a profound influence on the development of the Superstitch mission – the grandparents of our founder, Lydie and René. Far from being involved in the clothing production industry, they were farmers from a small town in the south west of France. They instilled in our founder from an early age those values of work ethic, perseverance and the idea that ‘all things worth doing, are worth doing well’. It was Lydie who gave our founder his first sewing needle, encouraging him, when he had a tear in his jeans, to learn how to fix it by himself. Thus a spirit of learning-by-doing and mastery of profession was sparked, fundamental to how Superstitch approaches all its activities. Sadly, Lydie and René passed without being able to share in the fruits of their nurturance. In their honour, our founder incorporates their memory in all his creations, taking them along at every milestone of the Superstitch journey.
Our shared belief with our customers, that well made things should be kept for a lifetime, and beyond, has motivated a continual research and development in highly specialised denim repairs techniques, using only original vintage machines that created those denim pieces themselves in the golden era. Our repair techniques are designed in a way to restore, even the most rare collectible vintage denim as close as possible to its original condition. Due to the unique attributes of denim clothing, the nature of the fabric and its special construction, common repair techniques used for other types of clothing are not suitable.
One of the key offerings of our expert denim repair service is the hand darning technique, applied to holes and tears in denim fabric. Without the use of patching, a darning stitch is employed, where the thread is applied row after row, against the direction of the original fabric, and thread by thread, the fabric is recreated, colour matched, almost as if it is woven anew.
People often ask us why the ‘roping’ effect of the jean hems done at our rue Racine repair centre are so pronounced and three dimensional in its texture. In fact, the true ‘roping’ fade is a defect produced by a particular chain stitch hemming machine, which has become increasingly rare to find in functional condition. Even rarer are those trained to operate this machine, as it is through a specific handling by the sewer, turning and guiding the fabric with a particular give or tension, that the fabric can be primed to develop this specific fading effect.
These and many other special repair techniques are capable of addressing all types of wear and damage, even those that seem catastrophic to the product. These are part of our in-house know-how, offered at the rue Racine repair centre for any of your beloved jeans and denim clothing, the lives of which you would like to prolong for the long term.
Superstitch MFG.
13 rue racine, 75006 Paris FRANCE
Superstitch MFG.
13 rue racine, 75006 Paris FRANCE