Naked & Famous
If you’re in the market for a perfect fitting pair of denim that also happens to glow in the dark, look no further. There is perhaps no better example of a brand that brings together unexpected materials into its garments than Naked & Famous.
It’s been said that there’s nothing new under the sun. That all we have left is the opportunity to combine old ideas in new ways. Whether you agree or disagree with such sentiments, what is most certainly true is that it’s easier to make things today than ever before. But making them well, and making them uniquely is, inversely, much harder.
So it takes a good amount of inspiration then (not to mention a hefty amount of hard work), to create something that hasn’t been seen before. Canadian-based brand Naked & Famous Denim has been doing just that since 2007. And founder Brandon Svarc credits one thing to his radical ideas: his eight-year-old self.
“There is no way my imagination is going to get better as I get older,” Svarc says in a company profile video from Neon Films. “As a kid, you have the greatest and most powerful imagination ever.”
As such, Svarc’s brainchild, Naked & Famous Denim, is known for creating some of the most innovative (and sometimes crazy) jeans on the market. The company finds (and develops) rare and often bizarre materials and mashes them up with the most classic of garments: namely, the blue jean. From raspberry scratch-and-sniff and glow-in-the-dark denims to classic, Japanese indigo selvedge, Naked & Famous’ line is diverse and quirky. And in a market now flush with options for everyone’s favorite five-pocket pant, it’s refreshing and fun to see a company dedicated so fully to doing something different.
But Naked & Famous isn’t all fun and games. These are some fantastically well-made products. Behind Svarc’s childlike imagination is 67-years of family experience in the denim and workwear industry. His family-owned factories in Québec still produce every distinctive product that Naked & Famous creates. The company has found success by bringing together Svarc’s creative sensibility with a long history of apparel production and fit expertise. As such, Naked & Famous has established itself as both a go-to niche brand for novelty-seeking denim heads and the mainstream market alike.
As one might expect, the process is easier said than done. After Svarc’s childhood-inspired idea comes to mind (but long before final labels are sewn on), the company executes an intense development process for each and every fabric (and they’ve developed quite a few over their eight-year history). Every fabric used in a Naked & Famous product is born from prestigious mills in Japan. These mills, which use the best shuttle looms and highly skilled labor (and the magic of the unique water quality of Okayama), create some of the best denims in the world.
Working with the mills directly, the Canadian clothier has developed dozens of uniquely blended selvedge like Kevlar denim, cashmere denim, silk denim, wool denim, linen denim, camel hair denim, and more. And with creative weaves from right and left-hand twill to W-weaves, multi-color nep fabrics, and dobby cloths, there aren’t many pairs of jeans in the world that feel as unique as those coming from Naked & Famous.
But these unique jeans are still just simple enough to also feel accessible. Whether you’re picking up a classic blue jean or a pomegranate-dyed one, every pair is unwashed with no whiskers or distressing. Paired with minimal stitching and no added embroidery, even the quirkiest option feels wearable both at home and in the casual office.
And this dedication to accessibility is close to the heart of the brand. Alongside the broad assortment of innovative products is a strong collection of classic indigo and black denim, all available in five distinct fits, which means there’s a cut for almost every body type.
“We really split our brand in two,” says Svarc in an interview with Hypebeast. “We have the more innovative stuff, but the core is really the luxury basics…we have four rules: always made in Canada, always from Japanese fabric, always raw, and the last rule is no bullshit. No advertising, no free giveaways, no sales reps, simple.”
So you won’t score a free pair any time soon (Svarc tells a story in which even Bieber was pointed to a local retailer after requesting a pair for an upcoming tour). But you won’t break the bank to buy their jeans for yourself, as most styles are available for under $200.
We selected two pairs of particularly unique Naked & Famous jeans along with a chambray selvedge kimono shirt and reflective denim bomber jacket to highlight just a few of the brand’s more unique products. Shop those items at classfare.com/shop or learn more and shop the entire collection at nakedandfamousdenim.com.