Hello my name is Sarah Lam – as ladies-wear Manager at Clockwork Orange Victoria Square, I am very passionate about denim and would like to share a little bit of history with you guys before I tell you all about my trip to London to sample Replay’s Fall 2012 collection!
Replay Training Day
Denim is identified with the 60’s and 70’s era of juvenille rebellion, Christopher Columbus, was the man who took denim to his chosen homeland: America. It is said that even the Three Caravelle had sails made from denim, back in 1942.
A couple of centuries later this woven blue and white cloth was named “jeans”. It’s not 100% clear of the origin of the word “jeans”. Some believe the word comes from the Italian port of Genoa where denim fabric was sold and then made into all-purpose sailor pants for the Genoese Navy. These sailor pants were called “Genes”.
The word denim originates from the name of a sturdy twill called Serge which was produced in the French mill town of Nimes ‘Serge de Nimes’. The word DENIM was formed by shortening Serge DE NIMES. A couple of centuries later jeans became the uniform of “The New Frontier”, worn by pioneers, adventurers and fearless spirits. These pants were worn by workers of The Trans American Railways, miners as well as cowboys.
Many years’ later cowboys were wearing blue jeans on the big Hollywood screen. From here on they became part of the collection icon: from work pants, jeans were later to become an object of desire and imagination. In the 30’s, blue jeans became official casual wear for leisure activities in America and in 1935 the first pair of jeans for women was launched. Yet, what really consecrated jeans as an Icon were the “damned” of Hollywood: James Dean, Marlon Brando, Steven McQueen, on their motorcycles, John Belushi, Robert DeNiro with his jeans and gun looking at himself in the mirror in Taxi Driver, all the wonderful Easy Riders and even Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Finally, how can we forget the arrogant stand-bearer for denim in the 60’s “Rock and Roll”. From “The King” onwards to the torn jeans of The Ramones, not forgetting the scandalous 1971 Rolling Stones LP Cover “Sticky Fingers” designed by Andy Warhol, denim becomes the crowning symbol of anti-confornism and individual freedom. Reaching Present day, the story of denim interacts with that of Replay. The origins of the name “REPLAY” are closely linked to the brands mission and the man who conceived it in 1978. During the World Cup in Argentina, Claudio Buziol saw the word “Re-play” flash on the screen for the first time and decided that it would be perfect name for a clothing line which alluded to the world of vintage by reinterpreting clothing from the past in a contemporary way (Replay Training Day, 2012)
OK history lesson over…. 
It was an early start for me on Tuesday 24th July. Myself (from Clockwork Orange, Belfast), Lauren (from Clockwork Orange, Ballymena) and Suzanne (from Clockwork Orange, Derry) were invited to attend a training and sampling event at Replay’s UK Headquarters, the ‘Campus’ in London. There we were taught the history behind denim and Replay.
We were trained in each of the stages of denim manufacture:-
-Weaving
-Cutting
-Stitching
-Washing
-Abrasions
-PPR Spray
-Rivets
-Buttons
-Patch
-Ironed
-Quality Control
-Bag it up
We also learned Bartack, which is Replay’s unique trade mark sewn-on fly which features on all of their jeans. Originally invented as a sewing procedure to re-inforce stress points on jeans, usually found near zippers and pocket openings and belt loops. The bartack was also referred to as sewing rivets.
During the day we got to design our own denim, press on buttons and rivets with a metal compressor, create breakages in the denim which gives the jeans a worn and aged look by scratching or abrading the fabric surface and also we got to sand/emerse a fabric which is a finishing process that can be performed before or after dying denim. Fabrics are scraped with sandpaper to make the surface soft without hair. Finally we got to scrape, a process generally done in rigid form on garments to obtain a distressed look. It can be applied all over or localized on front thigh and back seat. It uses emery paper to scrape the garments in particular positions and design and looks ssoooo good!
After designing our own denim which we got to keep!! We got down to business - at the Campus we got a sneak peek of what is to come for Autumn/Winter 2012. I am very excited for you guys to see the new Replay denim collection for Men and Women launching at Clockwork Orange very soon. To shop our online Replay collection click here.
At Replay I learned a new fact for the day. Do you ever wonder where Replay get their style names from? WWeeelllllll…..The names are inspired by Rock Stars!!
STYLE NAME ROCK STARS
Blondy Blondie
Jimi Jimi Hendrix
Swenfani Gwen Stefani
The Replay Team were all amazing and very helpful; myself, Lauren and Suzanne all had a fantastic time. What an experience! To check out my Replay Training Day Gallery visit Facebook.
