California Apparel News

When denim entrepreneur Roy Slaper of Oakland, Calif.–based Roy started out in 2007, he had no aspirations of creating a jeans line or making money off his new venture. It was his love of sewing machines that propelled him to become a one-man denim factory.

The skater and former welder became fascinated with the machinery of industrial sewing machines, which quickly took over his Oakland apartment.

“Everyone in the neighborhood knew about me,” Slaper said. “As my machine stock grew, people would say, ’Have you seen Roy’s apartment?’ It was 10 by 13 feet, I had 11 industrial machines and a cutting table, and I slept in the closet. It was hilarious.”

After several months, he switched to using only vintage machinery, and what started off as an experiment to learn more about the machines and teach himself how to sew eventually developed into a denim line that now sells for $275 at high-end retailer Self Edge.

The 39-year-old, self-taught designer/manufacturer/sewing-machine mechanic is solely responsible for the design and production of every pair of jeans from start to finish—from making the patterns to cutting the leather tags—all using vintage Singer, Union Special, Reece and Merrow machines and old tools.

“I don’t know why I like vintage machines,” Slaper said. “I enjoy older craftsmanship. I live in an old building built in 1915. I enjoy the texture of these articles that people used to make. You know how you can look at something and just feel it with the texture of your soul?”

He says his love of old machines partially stems from their ease of use and the aesthetic they produce.

“They make a more regular quality stitch character because they’re slower. They’re just enjoyable. hellip; A lot of them don’t have a modern counterpart.”

Each pair of jeans is created with raw, selvage denim; shell stitching; solid copper rivets; and Slaper’s embroidered signature on the inside pocket. They come in two styles, straight leg and narrow.

Despite the creative ingenuity behind his jeans, Slaper is quick to distinguish himself from the world of independent designers and crafters with which the Bay Area has become synonymous.

“I got so into the machinery of it. That’s what makes my stuff different than other DIY stuff,” he said. “This is not some Martha Stewart operation. I’m like a real factory. The people I’m friends with have real factories, and that’s who I try to associate with. There are still people making clothing and doing good quality sewing right here in Oakland.”

Slaper describes the vision for his designs as wanting them to look like they are “factory-made but with care.”

“I’m not necessarily trying to capture the past,” he explained when discussing the classic look of his jeans. “The whole idea of the definition of classic is that it’s representing that it has been done. You’re not going to necessarily improve upon it, but you could make it with superior craftsmanship.”

Slaper started by creating custom-designed jeans for friends. Despite describing his first creations as “awful,” he said he felt compelled to continue.

“I looked at them and saw potential, not failure.”

He no longer does custom designs and now only does production for Self Edge, which carries his jeans in its New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles stores.

Until recently, Slaper had been using 14-oz. unsanforized Cone Mills cotton denim, but his current fabric of choice is a high-end denim that he obtained through an exclusive partnership with a Japanese denim manufacturer that was arranged through a friend.

Because the fabric is “so difficult to get and so expensive,” the jeans will have a limited run, after which Slaper is hoping to return to using denim made in America.

The combination of high-quality artisanship, independently crafted classic looks and vintage cool has been the driving force behind Roy’s popularity with denim fanatics and has also garnered him an avid online fan base.

His unorthodox production process has been captured in a snappy video posted on Slaper’s website, where he espouses on everything from his philosophy on denim—“There is one,” states his website—to his thoughts on global economics and the cost of cotton and how it’s affecting his customers and pricing of his products.

“I really care that people get a good deal,” Slaper said. “I know how it feels when something is out of reach, price-wise.” As to future plans, Slaper said he’s happy with where his business is now and that he doesn’t know where he wants it to go. He alludes to the guiding principles of his work as creativity and a labor of love but says he is purposely keeping future plans vague.

Slaper said the “There is one” philosophy, which was put on his website as a placeholder by a friend when he built the site, best sums it up.

quot;I wanted this page for my philosophy of what I’m doing, and when I saw it, I said, ’God, you’re brilliant. That’s all that needs to be there.’” For more information, go to www.roydenim.com.