California Apparel News

After years creating some of California’s most fashionable jeans, denim pioneer Orly Dahan started to feel bored with basic denim and was looking to do something different.

The founder of popular ’80s surfwear label Surf Fetish, skate brand Tag Rag and premium-denim line Tag Jeans said he wanted to create something that no one else has, as well as make an impact, but he didn’t know how to differentiate himself.

“The Italians know how to wash, the French know how to make a basic jean, [but] all of the glamour of being California [had] faded,” he said. “At one point, California was the focus of fashion all over the world.”

Dahan said he thought the West Coast needed a change from the clean and basic look dominating the region’s sportswear. That’s when he came up with the idea to incorporate silkscreen prints into his new denim line.

“We started with prints, and through trial and error we started to print silkscreen—not just one area but whole pants,” he said. “We sew up the denim, we print it and then wash it.”

The new line, called Stone Craft, launched at the ENK trade show in Las Vegas and at Coterie in New York.

A veteran of the industry, Dahan first got his start producing jeans for a company called Oxygen, and then in 1985 he started Surf Fetish, which he owned with partner Raphy Sabbah. In 1999, they launched Tag Rag and, in 2003, Tag Jeans.

Dahan had witnessed the ebb and flow of denim trends over the years and knew that his new line had to offer something unique.

“I went back to Surf Fetish and prints all over again,” he said. “The idea was going back to my own files from the ’80s, but bringing it back in today’s look, not yesterday’s look.”

The result is a collection of brightly colored, silkscreened denim jeans and mixed-media printed shirts and shorts. Men’s work shirts with paisley pockets, boardshorts with denim waistbands, and women’s harlequin-striped pants and pink-and-white striped skinny jeans are just a few of the collection’s highlights.

“We just finished Coterie, and we had a lot of success with stores here and internationally,” he said. Italian luxury store Luisa via Roma picked up twills, colored denim with prints, printed shorts and shorts with mixed media at the show, according to Dahan.

He said the combination of “beautiful fabrics” and mixed media gives the clothes a completely new look. “We’re not competing with anyone. We have our own little thing going on.”

Dahan describes the line as designed for a young-at-heart, contemporary customer who is fashionable and a little bit more daring. “Not daring as in sexy but daring because they will be noticed a little bit more.”

He is also including a few basics—skirts and shorts—as well as a few fashion pieces that “could go a little bit more mature.”

Dahan had primarily been focused on the printed jeans, but the mixed-media shirts have been a surprise hit with buyers, he said.

“We’ve had tremendous success with the tops, which surprised me. We’ve been picked up by ’A stores’ all over.”

Dahan manufactures the line in Vernon, Calif., and sells it through the Sparkling or Flat showroom in downtown Los Angeles. Wholesale pricing runs from $45 for shorts to $69 for tops and $79 for jeans.

“The pricing is premium but still reasonable. You can get all these bells and whistles for the same prices as Tag Jeans,” he said.